


the lovers in the crosshairs

by urwelcome_forthis



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Endgame, Eventual Smut, F/F, Murder, Violence, but there will be smut at some point lol, i wont make you wait that long lol, its a bones au its in line with that show, its rated explicit mostly for the solving crime aspect, not a slow burn like bones don't worry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:54:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23336461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/urwelcome_forthis/pseuds/urwelcome_forthis
Summary: “Say you need me.” She crosses her arms over her chest and quirks an eyebrow.  She’s aware she’s being petulant at this point – she’s a federal employee and if her boss signed off on this, she really doesn’t have a choice, but still.She doesn’t care for being yanked from doing her actual job.Agent Danvers splutters for a moment, but must realize Lena is completely serious, because she throws those broad shoulders back and stares directly into Lena’s eyes.“Dr. Luthor – I and the FBI need you to help us identify the remains we found. Please come."OrThe Bones AU
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Querl Dox/Nia Nal, Samantha "Sam" Arias/Alex Danvers
Comments: 305
Kudos: 892





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i made the mistake of restarting bones last night and now i have like 15,000 words of this written so you get a really long first chapter 
> 
> mistakes are mine - my eyes are very tired, i have not taken a science class in almost ten years and my murders are based on the tv show but not nearly as clever lol 
> 
> find me on tumblr @urwelcomeforthis

_6 months ago_

Lena was fucking _furious_ , and the cocksure blonde-haired FBI Agent grinning at her, hands low on her own hips, that stupid multicolored tie standing out against her white dress shirt and black suit was the direct, and only cause. 

“I am _not_ coming with you Agent Danvers.” She was barely keeping her voice contained – anger causing her cheeks to flush, her jaw clenching in the way it did when she was incredibly agitated. 

She had never felt such intense dislike for another person before, but the Agent always managed to rile her up in 10 second flat.

“You definitely are. Got it signed off by your boss and everything Luthor.” Agent Danvers’s blue eyes are wrinkled at the corners as she continues to grin that stupid lopsided smile and Lena wishes she could scream. 

“No. I have much more important things to do than be at the beck and call of the FBI.” She begins to walk away from the Agent, but the taller woman infuriatingly comes to stand in front of her, placing her large hands on Lena’s shoulders. 

“I’m afraid that’s not really how this works. You kinda have to come with me.” There’s still amusement lacing her tone, like she knows she’s got Lena backed into a corner. 

“You can’t make me, Agent Danvers. I will file a formal complaint with your superiors if you try.” She shakes off the hands on her shoulders and stomps off from the way she came, cursing inwardly when she hears the Agent’s hurried footsteps behind her. 

“Wait! Wait. What can I do to get you to come to see this body?” She jogs in front of Lena, coming to a stop, halting her movements. 

“Say you need me.” She crosses her arms over her chest and quirks an eyebrow. She’s aware she’s being petulant at this point – she’s a federal employee and if her boss signed off on this, she really _doesn’t_ have a choice, but still. 

She doesn’t care for being yanked from doing her actual job. 

Agent Danvers splutters for a moment, but must realize Lena is completely serious, because she throws those broad shoulders back and stares directly into Lena’s eyes. 

“Dr. Luthor – I and the FBI need you to help us identify the remains we found. Please come.” 

She’s infuriatingly earnest but it does little to quell Lena’s anger. 

“I want to be a full partner. No more being stuck in the lab. If I do this, I want in on it all.” 

At this, the earnest look on Agent Danvers’s face shifts to one of complete and total incredulousness. 

“No. Out of the question. I’m not letting a squint into the field.” 

Lena smirks. “Well then, I guess we are at an impasse Agent Danvers.” 

She turns to walk away but is stopped by a gentle hand on her elbow. 

“I’ll have to clear it with the home office.” She has a crinkle in-between her eyebrows, like she’s worried she may not get the clearance, but Lena feels somewhat mollified. 

She decides to push her luck. 

“And I want a gun.” 

Agent Danvers snorts. “I’ll get you in the field but absolutely no to the gun thing. Why do you even need one? You’ll have me.” 

“All the more reason, Agent Danvers.” She scoffs but the Agent just rolls her eyes. 

“Get in the car, Luthor.” She drops Lena’s elbow and makes her way to the black standard issue SUV sitting on the corner, not even bothering to open the passenger’s side door. 

“It’s Lena!” She shouts helplessly after the agent, but follows, nonetheless. 

\----------

_Present Day_

“The FBI and the Washingtonian have been working together since the Bureau’s initial conception. However, forensic anthropology first came to the Washingtonian in 1903 with Ales Hrdlicka, the first curator of physical anthropology. It’s a proud tradition, and we now help not only identify the remains of those long lost to history, but we assist the FBI, State Department, and sometimes even national security.” 

Lena pauses, swallowing down her nerves as she looks out into the packed crowd of Georgetown students. She shuffles the papers on the podium in front of her, pausing when she sees a set of blue eyes peering back at her from the third row. 

They make contact, and for a moment Lena can feel her face warm. Clearing her throat, she looks away, and returns to the words in front of her. 

“I am proud to be a part of that history and tradition, the first woman to be named the head of the forensic anthropology department…..”

Her presentation had gone over well, the students had asked engaging questions, and she had walked off the stage feeling like maybe she had interested a few of them into looking into the field. 

She had just finished shaking the Dean’s hand when she saw Agent Kara Danvers leaning nonchalantly against the wall, black suit jacket hung over her shoulder, pants hung low on her hips, gun visible in its holster as she scrolled through her phone. 

Her ridiculous belt buckle gleamed in the light, the four-leaf clover with the words “rub for luck” making a mockery of Lena’s Irish heritage; tie donned with small ice cream cones wholly unprofessional for the gravity of her job. 

As was becoming common to Lena, she felt a slight flutter in her chest as she took in the Agent’s casual way of taking up space, blonde hair in a ponytail, biceps straining against her shirtsleeves. 

She pushed it down, telling herself it was nothing and cleared her throat. 

Kara’s head snapped up, an easy smile gracing her face as she took in Lena. Shrugging her jacket on she made her way over. 

“Hey partner. Good job up there.” She gave Lena a double thumbs up after she slipped her phone into her jacket’s inner pocket. 

“Thank you. I’m surprised you came; I know how you feel about scientific presentations.” She replied as she smoothed down the front of her dress. 

Kara just shrugged as they began to walk side by side down the hall towards the exit. 

“Well I mean, the big words confused me, but I got the gist.” 

Lena snorted, aware by now that Kara was much smarter than she liked to let on, used to the easy banter they often fell into. 

“Do we have a case?” She asked, trying to suss out Kara’s true reason for being at the university that day, as they stepped out into the harsh D.C. summer sun. 

“Yep.” Kara replied, popping the p as she slid her aviators on and jerked her head towards the black SUV that Lena had become familiar with these past 6 months. 

Kara opened the door for her, a marked change from the contentious beginning of their partnership, and Lena murmured a thank you before climbing in. 

“So, what is it this time?” She asked once Kara had gotten settled in the driver’s seat of the SUV. 

She felt the car jolt forwards as they merged into the heavy traffic and looked over to see Kara’s pursed lips.  
“Well, you see it’s an interesting one apparently. Kind of high profile. I had to fight to get you on it.” 

“Why?” Lena was genuinely surprised at that – she had more than proven herself to the FBI and was the world’s foremost forensic anthropologist. She was an incredible asset to any case. 

“Because of where we’re going.” Kara supplied unhelpfully and Lena felt the agitation rise at being kept in the dark. 

Kara liked to do this to her, she had figured out early on. Make her play some odd version of the children’s game 20 questions before finally telling her what it was that they were walking into. 

“Kara, I don’t have the patience for this, just tell me where we are going.” She sighed heavily, preparing herself for some smart quip, but when she was met with silence she glanced over. 

Kara’s jaw was clenched, her hands tight around the steering wheel, and she took a deep breath before replying. 

“There’s a burnt body, on the rooftop of a hotel. It’s strung up, like a crucifixion.” 

“Well that’s interesting. Why would you have to fight for me to be on a case like this? Logically I’m the most likely one to be able to identify remains such as those you’re describing.” She furrowed her brow, mind racing over all the burnt and charred remains she had identified in war torn countries, unable to understand why she wouldn’t be wanted. 

“It’s not that. You’re the best, I know that. It’s because of what hotel it is.” Kara’s voice was soft, like it only got with Lena, when she was trying to break something down to her in a way Lena would be able to process. 

“I don’t really understand why the location would preclude me from being brought onto a case.” Lena huffed, frustrated at the idea of such an insignificant factor having anything to do with her credentials. 

She sat in thought for a while longer, Kara staying silent as she let Lena figure it out on her own, as she often did at times like these. 

When her mind stumbled on to it, she felt her spine go rigid in the leather seat. 

“It’s Luthor Grand.” 

Kara breathed heavily through her nose. “Yeah. And they thought –“ 

“They thought since I’m the only Luthor not in prison or on the run from the law, I must have finally given into the familial tendency to commit flashy homicides.” She growled, anger flaring in her chest. Fucking Lex. 

“Yeah but I told them you weren’t like your brother or your mom. I mean I know when we first started working together, they were cautious, but they should know by now you’re not your family.” Kara began to rant, one hand on the steering wheel, the other gesticulating wildly in the air. 

“They were cautious about me when we first started working together? I have three doctorates and am a federal employee!” She was incensed – the Luthor name had become a curse the moment Lex had gone off the rails, but she had more than proven herself. 

“Well yeah Lena. Your name brings up like, 11 red flags in the FBI databases but I told them the same thing then, you’re not your family. I mean, for one you don’t kill people, you’ve kind of dedicated your whole life to figuring out how to identify dead people. You literally catch people who commit murders, you don’t do them.” 

“Well thank you.” Lena said, sincerely, still a little taken aback that Kara was always so ready to stand up for Lena and the people who worked with her. 

(Granted, one of those people was Kara’s sister, but still.) 

“Well yeah, you’re my partner.” Kara said easily, like she always did when she went above and beyond for Lena. 

Lena for her part, never having been in a partnership before, was unsure if that was really what being partners meant, but she was grateful for it all the same. 

“Do you have 11 red flags?” She asked, curious to know given Kara’s past profession. 

“What? No why would I?” Kara’s voice went slightly high at the question and Lena furrowed her brows. 

“Because you have actually killed people.” 

She knew she had asked the wrong question, said the wrong thing, when Kara’s shoulders tensed and her voiced dropped into a more serious tone. 

“That’s different. I was serving my country.” 

Lena nodded, aware that once again, she had inadvertently said something to upset Kara. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.” 

She struggled, sometimes with personal interaction, and it was never more clear than when she was with Kara, but for some reason, Kara always forgave her, always explained why she had gotten upset at what Lena had asked or insinuated.

“It’s ok. I can understand why you’d make that connection, but what I did in my job as a sniper is not the same as murdering someone innocent in cold blood.” Kara smiled a small smile in her direction.

“I can understand that.” She responded, allowing the two to fall into a slightly uncomfortable silence. 

Sam had once explained to Lena, who wasn’t entirely sure she agreed with what Kara had just said, that for Kara, it was important for her to believe what she had done in her duty to her country was justified and necessary. If she pulled on that thread, made Kara confront the horrors that lived in her head, and jeopardized her faith in the system, it would hurt Kara badly. 

She hadn’t completely understood what Sam meant then, and was still unsure now, but she knew she definitely didn’t want to hurt Kara. 

They pulled up in front of the Luthor Grand, and Lena took a deep breath, staring up at the gilded architecture, her last name scrolled in cursive script, large and imposing. 

“Hey.” She heard Kara’s soft voice and turned to face her, giving her a weak smile. 

“I’m fine.” She assured. Kara’s eyes traced her face, obviously not believing for a second that Lena was ok, but she nodded all the same. 

“Alright. Let’s go look at something horrifying.” She said as she hopped out of the car, pausing to button up her suit jacket. 

Lena followed after her, noticing that instead of walking up the front entrance Kara was headed to a side entrance, a man in black holding it open for the two of them. 

They took a service elevator up, sparing Lena the looks she would have received had they entered through the lobby, something for which she was grateful. 

On the roof, the sun was shining brightly, beating down on the busy crime scene that unfolded in front of them. 

While Kara walked over to talk to the agents that had arrived first on the scene, Lena accepted a pair of latex gloves being handed to her by a tech. 

The body was burnt beyond recognition, the head lolling forwards, arms tied up on either side on the bar that ran underneath the large Luthor Grand sign. 

As she began to poke and prod at the body, Kara joined her side. 

“God, why can’t we just get a normal murder. You know, jealous wife shoots a husband in the driveway, wham bam, easy peasy.” 

Lena rolled her eyes. 

“You’re far too skilled an agent to be called in for normal murders, and I wouldn’t be needed on such a case.” She slightly lifted the head of the remains, examining the bones, before crouching down to exam the hip and pelvic bones. 

She could see out of the corner of her eye how Kara puffed her chest out, hands in their usual position, anchored on her hips. 

“Yeah you’re right, we’re the best of the best.” She paused as the wind changed direction, filling both of their nostrils with the smell of burnt flesh. “But it would be great if people stopped doing weird shit like this.” 

Lena stood back up, examining the skull once again. 

“Agreed.” 

“So, what do you think?” Kara asked, pulling out a notepad and a pen, ready as ever to take notes despite Lena’s constant reassurances it wasn’t necessary. 

“Caucasian male, mid to late thirties. He was dead before he was burned and based on the fragmentation and striations on this side of the skull,” she paused to tilt the skull so Kara could see, “he was shot with a low caliber weapon at close range.” 

“Still can’t get over how you do that.” Kara mumbled as she wrote down everything Lena said. 

Lena suppressed a smile, but it faltered as she caught sight of a slight bulge in the neck of the remains. 

“Can I get a pair of forceps?” She called out over her shoulder, and felt Kara come to hover closer, trying to see what Lena saw. 

“What is it?” She asked, sliding her sunglasses down her nose to get a better look. 

She took the proffered forceps and placed them down the throat of the remains. 

“There looks to be something forced down the mouth and into the throat – it would have had to been done post-mortem, and post burning.” She fished out what looked like a folded-up piece of paper, examining it before placing it carefully in an evidence bag. 

Kara wrinkled her nose. “So, the murderer left a message after sticking around to watch this guy burnt up like a crispy critter?” 

Lena shrugged. “You’ll have to tell me. My job here is finished until you get these bones back to the lab.” She snapped the gloves on her hand off, indicating to Kara she had done all she could for the time being.  
“Alright guys, you heard the lady. Get these remains to the Washingtonian!” Kara yelled, as she began to go about organizing the crime scene in order to get Lena everything she and her team would need. 

Lena went back to stand in some shade near the roof’s door, studiously doing her best to not look up to where her last name was stood overlooking all of downtown D.C.

\-----

After Kara had dropped her off back at the lab, Lena sat in her office, taking the time before the FBI delivered the body to go over some files on as of yet unidentified skeletons from the second World War. 

She was going over the bones scans her intern had done in her absence, when she was interrupted by a knock on her door. 

Looking up, she smiled when her best friend walked in. 

Samantha Arias smiled widely at Lena as she plopped herself down on the couch in Lena’s sitting area. 

“Hey babe, how did the talk go?” 

Clicking out of the program, Lena got up, walking over to sit down next to Sam, always happy to speak to her first, and oldest friend. 

“It went well, even Kara said so.” Lena replied, still thrilled to have done so well on her speech. Speaking in front of crowds wasn’t her favorite, but it was an important part of her job, so when it went well it was always a relief. 

Sam snorted. “Of course Kara did.” 

Lena tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean by that? Kara is always very supportive of me, even when she doesn’t understand what I’m presenting on.” 

“Babe, you could read the dictionary to Kara and she would think it was the best thing anyone’s ever done.” Sam wiggled her eyebrows and Lena felt herself getting confused – something that happened often in these heavily veiled conversations Sam insisted on having. 

“Why on earth would I read the dictionary to Kara? That sounds dreadful. Not to mention an insult to her intelligence. She’s actually quite smart you know, she pretends she doesn’t know the language we use but she does.” 

“Oh sweetie. No, I meant more like, Kara thinks everything you do is amazing. That woman thinks high culture is taking in a hockey game at Capital Centre, but she still somehow always ends up in the audience of all your talks and presentations. You have to know that means something.” 

“Yes, she’s an incredibly supportive partner and friend.” Lena nodded her head, agreeing. Really, it was so nice of Kara to keep coming to Lena’s talks. She always found her eyes in the crowd and had told Kara once had it helped to calm her nerves. 

“No. I’m an incredibly supportive friend, but even I cannot force myself to listen to you talk about the importance of Clyde Show or whoever to the field of forensics.” Sam insisted with a roll of he eyes. 

“It’s Clyde Snow.” Lena automatically corrected, and Sam sighed deeply.

“Is that really what you got out of all I just said?” Sam asked and Lena shook her head. 

“No, you think Kara is coming to my presentations for reasons beyond friendship. I understood, I’m not daft.” 

“Yes! She finally gets it!” Sam shouted, hands shooting into the air, startling Lena. 

“Sam, I don’t see how that’s necessary. And yes, I get it, but that doesn’t mean I agree. She and I argue, and I say things that upset her constantly.” Lena demurred, looking down at her hands in her lap.

“Lena, if you upset her that badly she wouldn’t still want to spend as much time with you. Or take the time to explain why you’ve upset her. And that woman loves the way you argue with and rankle her. It keeps her on her toes.” Sam’s voice was unbearable soft, like it got when she thought Lena wasn’t thinking highly enough of herself, and Lena felt her throat get thick. 

“I know you all think Kara and I have something more, but we just don’t, Sam.” She said, and cleared her throat, standing up unwilling and unable to have this conversation yet again. 

They were too different. That’s all it came down to. Kara deserved someone who didn’t get tripped up on basic social formalities and could understand her constant pop culture references. Someone light and airy, like she was. 

Not someone with the baggage Lena Luthor had. 

“Alright, I’ll leave it alone.” Sam acquiesced and Lena felt some of the tension bleed from her shoulders. 

“Thank you.” 

At another knock on her door they both turned to see their intern Nia standing there, nervous to come inside. 

“Dr. Luthor? The remains from the crime scene are here.” 

Lena nodded and moved to grab her dark blue lab coat from where it hung on the coat rack in the corner near her desk. 

“Thank you, Miss. Nal. You and Dr. Dox can meet me on the podium. Call for Dr. Danvers as well.” 

Nia turned on her heel and hurried to grab Brainy, as Lena donned her coat and gathered her hair into a ponytail. 

“Great, another creepy murder case.” Sam mumbled as they made their way towards the raised platform set in the middle of the large open lab space. 

“Actually, this one promises to be quite fascinating. The remains were burned and it could be a ritualistic killing of some sort.” Lena said, getting excited at the prospect of working with the bones she had seen earlier in the day. 

Sam just groaned. “Everyone here, including my wife, is so fucking weird.” 

“Hey I heard that.” Alex Danvers said as she walked up behind the two women, knocking into Sam where she stood. 

“Yeah? Good. You’re a fucking weirdo babe.” Sam said with a laugh as they all climbed the stairs, watching as the FBI techs unloaded the bags carrying the remains and evidence onto the surgical tables. 

Lena smiled as the two women dissolved into their usual bickering, sliding a pair of gloves on as Nia went to work placing the remains on the table with Alex’s help. 

Once they were set up, Lena came to stand at the forefront of the table, examining the remains in the harsh light of the lab. 

“Dr. Danvers, is there enough flesh here for you to work with?” She asked as the group settled down and slipped into work mode. 

Alex looked carefully at the charred flesh, lips pursed. 

“Yeah, I think so. I just need to remove it somehow. I don’t think it’ll tell us much though, given its almost all burnt off.” 

“Ah I may have an idea that would allow for the removal without harming the bones.” Brainy offered and Lena nodded. 

“I trust your judgement. Dr. Dox. Miss. Nal, please assist Dr. Dox in removing the flesh from the bones. Mrs. Arias, there was a folded note in the victim’s throat. I’m unsure how degraded it is, so you may need to take a close look at it.” She pointed towards the evidence bag sitting on the table and Sam grimaced. 

“Gross.” 

Lena dutifully ignored Sam, who made her way over to the evidence bag and pulled out the note using a pair of forceps. 

“Whoever killed this guy really wanted him dead dead.” Alex said as she catalogued the injuries that were visible to the naked eye on the remains. 

Behind them the beeping of someone sliding their key card for access on to the platform sounded, followed by the unmistakable sound of Kara bounding up the stairs in her usual exuberance. 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they were sending a message.” Kara said as she came to stand next to Lena, bumping her shoulder slightly. 

“A message? To who?” Lena asked, her attention now fully on the woman standing to her left. 

“Hung up like a scarecrow on one of your family’s buildings? It’s either a message for you, your mother, or a warning. That’s what my gut says.” Kara shrugged as she stared at the victim, eyebrows pinched together. 

“A warning? Why would anyone warn me by burning someone?” Lena asked, shock evident in her voice. 

Kara shrugged. 

“Not sure, but whoever it is, I’m gonna find them and figure it out.” She said with an easy confidence that always sent a thrill through Lena. 

“It’s going take me some time to figure out what was written on this note.” Sam announced from her place on the platform, holding a tray in her hands. 

“Great.” Kara mumbled as her phone rang and she took it out, stepping to the side to answer. 

“Alright Mrs. Arias. Everyone you have your assignments.” Lena announced to her team as they all began to break up, getting to work. 

Lena was planning on going back to her office to get to work on the WWII remains, when Kara stopped her. 

“Hey, we’ve got another body.” She told Lena quietly, eyes darting around in concern. 

“Another one? Usually they wait until we’ve had some time with a new set of remains before calling us in.” She mused as she removed her gloves. 

“Yeah, well they think this one might be connected.” Kara said as she grabbed Lena by the wrist to pull her out of the lab. 

“Kara, wait I have to hang up my coat.” She protested as she pulled against Kara’s grip and headed towards her office. 

“Hurry up.” Kara said, practically bouncing on her feet as she waited for Lena to collect her things, checking her phone periodically as Lena hung up her coat and eyed her uneasily. 

“Why are you acting so strangely?” She asked as she placed her phone in her purse and they made their way out towards the parking garage. 

“What? I’m not acting strangely.” Kara lied, her eyes darting to look over at Lena. 

“Yes, you are, you’re acting like you’ve got bugs in your shoes.” She said and Kara snorted. 

“Ants in my pants. And its just – the agent on the phone told me this was another weird one and I don’t like it when we get two of those so close together.” She answered as they stepped into the elevator. 

“Well I’m sure whatever it is we’ll figure it out.” Lena reassured her. 

“Yeah. Yeah I’m sure we will.” Kara agreed, but Lena could hear the hesitancy in her voice. 

She decided not to press it, already mentally preparing herself for their second crime scene in one day, telling herself the WWII remains would have to wait longer to finally be identified. 

\-------

There was a heavy police and FBI presence at the crime scene when they pulled up. 

Lena couldn’t quite make out what was going on, but the mass concentration of people seemed to be in front of a large fountain. 

“Lena, hold back for a minute, ok?” Kara asked, a soft hand on Lena’s forearm. 

Normally Lena would have argued, but the look of concern on Kara’s face held her back. 

She nodded, hanging back at Kara’s side as she talked in a low voice with a police officer who looked queasy.

As she waited, she took a moment to take in the scene further. A crowd of onlookers had gathered off to one side, being corralled behind the bright yellow of police caution tape. A news crew had shown up, the camera man working to set up his equipment as the anchor tried and failed to speak to a police officer who was doggedly ignoring her. 

A few officers and federal agents looked uneasy as they stood in clumped groups, and Lena began to feel their unease rub off on her. 

The last time she had been to a crime scene like this, where the faces were this distraught, had been years ago, and it was not a fond memory. 

Kara finally finished her conversation, and Lena looked at her expectedly. 

“Come with me.” Kara said, grabbing Lena’s arm and pulling her back to where their car sat, taking her sunglasses off and running a hand through her blonde curls. 

“Kara, we need to go and examine the remains before all of these people further contaminate the crime scene.” She said, tugging on her arm, but Kara only tightened her grip. 

“We will. We’re going over there, but I need to prepare you first.” Kara explained, a pleading look in her eyes. 

“Prepare me? Kara I’ve seen much worse things than whatever is waiting for us over there, I assure you.” She snapped, getting testy with her partner. Most of it was the nerves wearing on her – there were too many people here, and something was wrong, that much was obvious even to Lena’s eyes. 

“Yeah, I know you have, but this is apparently like something you’ve seen before. The remains, they match the M.O. of a serial killer that’s been apprehended.” 

“Ok? There are many serial killers operating in the United States, I’ve seen many of their victim’s remains.” She pointed out, feeling her anger rise. 

“Yeah, yeah that’s true. But this one is more personal.” Kara told her, thumb beginning to rub back and forth on the exposed skin of Lena’s arm. 

“No. He’s in jail.” Lena said, shutting down Kara before she could get any further. 

“Yeah, I know. This is probably a copycat, but I just wanted you to be prepared.” Kara explained, sighing when Lena pulled her arm away. 

“Well you’ve prepared me. Now may I go and do my job?” She testily asked, and Kara sighed again. 

“Lead the way.” Kara held her arm out to indicate she would follow behind, and Lena tried to not stomp like a child. 

As they approached the scene, the crowd before them parted at the flash of Kara’s badge. The victim came into view, and Lena felt her heart pounding in her chest. 

A bone dry, white skeleton was placed on display in front of the fountain, held up on a stand like Lena remembered from medical school. Written beneath the skeleton, in red paint (or more likely blood), was the phrase ‘He who will Try’, scrawled out. 

Lena tried to ignore how familiar the handwriting was. 

Snapping on a pair of gloves and ignoring the heated gaze Kara was leveling at her, she stepped over the red script and began to get a closer look at the remains. 

She knew the first place she should look, but couldn’t bring herself to do so yet. She took her time looking at the skull, the ribs, the arms and legs. Nothing was out of place or abnormal, and finally she found herself taking a deep breath before walking around to look at the spine. 

She stared at it for long moment. 

Closing her eyes, she felt the warmth of Kara at her side almost immediately. 

“The spine has been taken apart and put back together.” She said, eyes remaining closed. 

“Out of order?” Kara guessed, most likely as familiar with the original case as Lena was. 

“Yes.” Lena answered, stepping back from the remains. Without another word she shed her gloves and walked in a fast clip back towards the SUV. 

She tried to open the door, her fear and frustration welling inside of her, but it was locked. Her brain shut down and she tried again and again, the handle slapping uselessly against the car door. 

“Hey, hey, hey.” Kara said as she jogged up behind Lena, reaching out to stop her futile attempts to get into the locked car. 

Lena snatched her hand out of Kara’s crossing her arms over her chest, refusing to make eye contact. 

“Please open it.” She mumbled, feeling jittery, like she could fly out of her own skin. 

“Yeah, ok.” She heard Kara breathe, and at the sound of the locks clicking open, Lena snatched the handle again, the door flinging open as she slid inside. 

Kara joined her only moments later, turning her body in her seat to face Lena as fully as she could. 

“It’s not him. He’s in jail. It’s just some sick fuck who decide to play copycat.” Kara tried to assure her. Lena nodded, her eyes feeling glassy, her stomach turning over with Kara’s words. 

“Yeah. But the work done on the spine. It looks like his work.” Lena was panicked, working hard to keep her cool, but she knew what she had seen on the remains, she knew the handwriting of the message as well as she knew her own. 

“Alright, let’s talk this out, ok? The message – that’s some Alexander the Great thing, right?” Kara spoke, working through the details, and Lena felt herself calming somewhat at the rationality of what Kara was doing. 

“It’s a piece of a quote. There is nothing impossible to him who will try. It’s actually Plutarch but that doesn’t matter.” She pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers, trying to focus on her breathing. 

“Ok. So that fits the other one from before. And the spine thing. It was out of order, but do we know what order?” Kara asked, as she took out her faithful notepad, jotting down what they had talked through so far. 

“Everything was the same but four vertebra which were placed out of order in the middle of the spine. The C2, L2, T7, and C5 were placed together, in that order.” She kept her fingers pinched on her nose, well aware her breathing exercises weren’t helping as they should. 

“Ok, he liked to send messages, right? CLTC doesn’t really make any sense, does it? Unless there’s some weird code I don’t know, which is a good possibility.” Kara had begun to scratch out patterns on her notepad, turning the letters and numbers over, trying to find the hidden meaning. 

Lena let go of her nose and looked over at what Kara had written down. She had pumped out a good amount of combinations of the carefully stitched together message but so far none of them pulled at Lena. 

That is, until she saw the numbers placed together. 

“It’s the numbers.” She croaked, pointing a shaking finger at the spot that Kara had written out ‘2275.’

Kara leaned back and frowned, scratching her head with her pen. 

“2275? Alright, but what does that mean? Is it some cipher or something? The beginning of a phone number or a code?” 

Lena shook her head. “No. It’s more direct, not as intricate as his other coded messages, but it fits in the same type of M.O. It’s from the Bible.” 

Kara’s eyebrows shot up. “The Bible? Really?” She looked doubtful but Lena nodded. 

“He’s always been obsessed with the mythos of religion. This is from Matthew 22:75. “Before the rooster crows, you’ll betray me three times.” He was particularly fond of the tale of Peter.” She swallowed around the lump forming in her throat, the panic still flooding her system. 

“So, this guy – the victim - betrayed him three times?” Kara asked

“No, I don’t think so. He is never quite that literal. We’ll only know once we identify the remains what this particular message means.” She felt the worry seep into her bones, leaving her body feeling waterlogged and worn down. 

“We still don’t know if it’s him, Lena. It could be a copycat. He’s locked down at a max federal facility.” 

“It’s him, Kara. I know it is. The handwriting is him, and the work is too clean to be done by a first-time copycat. Call the prison, please.” Lena begged, hands wringing together. 

Lena watched as Kara yanked her phone out of its place in her jacket pocket, making a phone call. 

“Yes. This is Agent Kara Danvers, FBI. I need an immediate status update on Prisoner 72391. In person check.” Kara said with authority in her voice, and Lena felt surprise at the fact that Kara had her brother’s prison identification number memorized. 

Her shock must have shown on her face because Kara started to look slightly sheepish. 

“I like to keep tabs on the people who’ve hurt you.” She told Lena with a little shrug, and if this moment wasn’t so nerve wrecking Lena would have smiled. 

Whoever was on the other end of the phone line must have returned, and Lena felt her stomach drop at the look of fear that crossed Kara’s normally stoic face.

“Lock down the facility, now. Call your superiors. This is the absolute priority.” Kara barked out an order slipping her phone from her ear quickly, punching in a number and holding it back up. 

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck” she chanted, and Lena felt tears fill her eyes. 

Her worst nightmare was happening in real time and the evidence of it was strung up like a teaching tool 700 feet from her door. 

“This is Agent Kara Danvers. The federal penitentiary has been breached. Prisoner Lex Luthor has escaped. Lock down every airport, bus station, and train station. Get roadblocks set up where necessary and get a team to the prison.” Kara hung up, tossing her phone into the center console, and reached above her to flip on the lights and siren of her car. 

She took a moment to reach out and lace her fingers together with Lena’s own shaking hand. 

“It’s him. It’s Lex. He broke out, sometimes this morning or last night, they’re not sure.” 

Lena could feel the tears flowing freely down her cheeks, as she brought her free hand to hold Kara’s securely between both of her own. 

“How? How did he escape a max facility?” She asked desperately. 

“I don’t know but he did.” Kara said, a hint of anger in her voice. 

Kara must have seen the plain fear and terror painting Lena’s features because she once again turned more fully to face her. 

“I will not let him get to you, Lena. I won’t let him hurt anyone else. But especially not you. I swear.” Kara brought her free hand up to Lena’s face, wiping some of her tears away with her thumb. 

Lena nodded frantically even though the words that left her didn’t match. 

“He’s mentally deranged Kara. He doesn’t care about anything or anyone except himself. He won’t stop until he gets what he wants, whatever that is.” She sobbed against Kara’s palm. 

“I don’t care. You will figure it out, you always do. And I will keep you safe. With everything I am.” Kara leaned across the middle console and wrapped her arms around Lena, holding her tight and close as Lena began to cry into her shoulder. 

“I will never let anyone hurt you.” Kara whispered into Lena’s hair. 

Lena grabbed onto Kara like her life depended on it, letting her whisper declaration after declaration as she held her awkwardly in the front seat of the car.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't promise all updates will happen this quickly, but I know we're all stuck doing our level best indoors (or for some of us, at work) and so I'm trying to pump them out 
> 
> all mistakes are mine
> 
> find me on tumblr @urwelcomeforthis

Kara dropped Lena off at her apartment, after a long drawn out argument between the two about the safety of doing so with her serial killer brother on the loose. 

Like most of their arguments, Kara let Lena think she won, and then promptly had agents posted in every conceivable nook and cranny she could to keep an eye out. 

She knew it would make Lena irate when she figured it, but she could not care less. Not when it came to Lena’s safety. 

She made her way home slowly, trudging up her stairs instead of taking the elevator, unlocking her door and slamming it loudly behind her. 

She was unsurprised to find both Alex and Sam in her apartment, in the midst of making dinner, but tonight, after the day she had, she found she wasn’t really in the mood. 

“Do you two not have a home of your own?” She asked grumpily as she went about removing her jacket, followed by her shoulder holster, and finally her hip holster. She hung the leather straps up on the hooks by her door, taking her guns and storing them in the safe she kept for that exact purpose. 

Sitting down at the kitchen table she began to unknot the tie around her neck, grunting in acknowledgement when Alex set a beer down in front of her. 

“We do, but we figured you could use the company.” Her sister said as she moved back over towards where her wife was dishing some kind of sauce over something in a deep pan. 

“Yeah, and lord knows Lena won’t let me comfort her, so you get both of us, a nice two for one deal.” Sam said as placed the dish in the oven, closing the door with a knock of her foot. 

Kara picked at the label on the bottle of the beer, wishing desperately she was still with Lena. She felt so much better when she was the one keeping Lena safe, when she was the one always within arm’s length in case she was needed. 

Alex, noticing Kara’s silent brooding sat down across from her and knocked her feet under the table with her own. 

“We’ll catch him, Kara. I know you weren’t here last time, but we caught him once and we’ll do it again. You know this case back and forth; I know you made sure you did when you took Lena on as your partner. And last time, she wasn’t as involved as she will be this time, she wasn’t out in the field seeing the entire picture. He won’t be expecting that.” Alex said, attempting to make Kara feel better but all Kara felt was a sinking feeling in her gut. 

“I’m not sure I want her out in the field.” She responded before she took a long draining sip of her drink. 

Sam turned her head at that, eyebrows raised. “You can’t keep her out of it, Kara. It would drive her insane.” 

“I know. I’m not going to. It doesn’t stop me from wishing I could just take her far, far away from here. Maybe an island in the middle of nowhere. Plop her down and then come back and take care of Lex.” Kara shrugged, not missing the glance Alex and Sam shared. 

“We know, kid.” Sam said from her perch on the counter. 

Kara rolled her eyes at the nickname but remained quiet, happy to stew in her broodiness for the night. 

“Hey, you’ll keep her safe. Everyone knows how much you care about her, even Lena knows. You won’t let anything happen to her, in the field or not.” Alex offered. Kara hummed noncommittally. 

“Lena trusts you more than I’ve ever seen her trust anyone, even me. She loves you, even if she’s not always the best at showing it.” Sam hopped down from the counter to retrieve another beer for Kara, swapping them out without being asked. 

“She doesn’t love me, Sam. I would know if she loved me.” Kara grumbled out, tired of having this conversation over and over again with her sister and sister-in-law. 

“Kara that girl is crazy, head over heels for you. I’ve known her for years. She was like a robot before you started working with her. Now she goes home at a regularish hour, she comes out to eat with us, she smiles more. She loves you.” Alex said, no room for argument in her tone. 

“Drop it, Alex. I would know.” Kara emphasized, and Alex sighed, holding her hands up in the air in mock surrender. 

“Alright. Kara, why don’t you go shower and get changed while dinner cooks, and we’ll get out of your hair once we’re done eating, ok?” Sam, always the peacekeeper between Alex and Kara, came over to tug Kara out of her chair, gently pushing her on the back towards her bedroom. 

Kara went without a fight, knowing the sooner she complied, the sooner Alex and Sam would leave, allowing her to work through her case notes from the day in peace. 

\------

Kara pulled up to the J. Edgar Hoover Building and sighed as she parked in the garage. She had wanted to head to the Washingtonian first thing this morning but had been called in for a meeting with other lead agents to go over new cases. 

She climbed off the elevator onto her floor, heading to her office to gather the paperwork that Lena had texted to tell her had been faxed over that morning. 

She was greeted outside her office by her friend Agent Sawyer, who was leaned up against the door. 

“Sawyer.” She grunted out in greeted as she fumbled with the coffee in her hand, some of the hot liquid splashing out onto her fingers. 

She yanked her door open as she licked the coffee off of her hand, jerking her head so Maggie would follow her in. 

Maggie, despite being Alex’s ex, was also one of Kara’s closest friends in the bureau. They had worked together on Kara’s first case after she had left the special forces and had become quick friends. 

At the FBI, there was no one that Kara trusted more. 

Which is why, once she was seated comfortably behind her desk and Maggie was shutting the door behind them, she paused taking in her friend’s tense posture. 

“Mags? What’s up?” She asked as she paused her search for a file folder to put her faxed information in. She took note of a donut sitting on her desk and diverted her attention. 

The smaller woman grimaced in Kara’s direction, coming to sit down in the chair across from the desk.

“The Lex Luthor case.” 

Kara paused, donut in her hand, halfway to her mouth. 

“What about it?” She set the donut down, wiping the crumbs off on her pants, cringing to herself knowing if it left a mark Lena would absolutely say something about it later. 

“You weren’t here last time, but you should know, the people who worked on it had a hell of a time getting anything done. They were stalled at basically every single level.” Maggie said, leaning forward, her voice so low Kara had to lean forward as well to hear. 

“Why would they have been stalled? He killed 5 people in increasingly grotesque ways, and the evidence the Washingtonian and bureau collected was airtight.” Kara mirrored Maggie’s volume and watched as her friend took a moment to glance nervously around the office. 

“Lex has his talons in everything in this town. Important people, Danvers. Including important people here. It took getting untainted judges and officers involved to get anything moving. If it hadn’t been for public sentiment and leaks to the press, I’m pretty sure he’d still be head of LuthorCorp.” 

“Fuck.” Kara leaned back in her chair, loosening the knot of her tie to give herself some air. “Do you think his reach still holds? I mean it’s been five years.” 

Maggie chewed her bottom lip for a moment. “Yeah, I think it still holds. If it didn’t, I don’t know why he’d escape and immediately go back to showboat murders. He’s trying to scare people back into complacency.” 

Kara nodded and heaved a sigh. “Alright. I want you on the team, if you’re ok with that. Collect other people you trust. At least we can get that part going for us.” 

“Yeah. I’ll be quiet about it. There are some people who worked it last time who can be trusted. I’ll get it started.” Maggie stood and Kara gathered her information, following her out into the main office. 

“Thanks Sawyer.” 

“Yeah, no problem Danvers. Be careful, yeah?” Maggie placed an open palm on Kara’s shoulder. 

“You too.” 

\--------

Kara blew into the Washingtonian lab an hour later, after a pointless meeting with the FBI higher ups. 

They were a single day into this case, with a mad man on the loose, and the levels of bureaucracy were already beginning to grate on her nerves. 

She took a deep breath, feeling her nerves calm when she saw Lena stood on the platform, donned in her lab coat, dark hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. 

It still struck Kara how the woman could look so breathtaking as she held up a blackened bone, examining injuries, eyebrows furrowed, eyes sparkling at the mystery only she could unlock. 

She didn’t know how long she stood there, staring, before Nia appeared at her side. 

“So, you just gonna stare at her all day or are you here for a reason?” The intern asked, mirth clear on her face. 

Kara grunted. “You’re awfully comfortable around me Nia. I’ve got a gun. I can do unspeakable things.” 

Nia just laughed. “Sure, sure you’re a scary big bad sniper turned FBI agent. I’m quaking in my boots.” 

“Shut up.” Kara answered in reply as Nia walked away shaking with laughter. 

The sound alerted Lena to her presence, and she began waving a hand to Kara, indicating she should join her on the platform. 

Kara took a moment to straighten her tie (the nuclear physics one Lena had gotten her on her birthday – she couldn’t understand one lick of the equations, but she loved the way Lena always smiled when she wore it), and pulled out her keycard to join her partner. 

She bounded up the steps, loving how it always caused a smirk to appear on Lena’s lips, and sidled up next to the woman. 

“So, do we know who this is yet?” She asked, throwing her hands into her pants pockets. 

“You’re just on time to find out, actually.” Nia called from where she had joined them, her hands grasped around a file Kara by now recognized as the kind with medical information. 

“And I just got the information back from the spectral comparator, I was able to get it to render the particles of the ink on the paper and show me what had been written.” Sam said as she joined them, clipping her ID to the front of her lab coat. 

“Alright, great work team. How’d it go with the flesh, Alex?” Kara asked, noting with interest the bones were completely clean. 

“Not great. It was too burnt to do anything with, so I handed it over to Brainy to run one of his weird ass experiments.” Alex said as she sat down in a rolling chair and scooted over to where Sam stood. 

Brainy, always eager to somehow connect with Kara, lit up. 

“Ah yes, I used my personal collection of Dermestes Maculatus, bugs that were able to eat the charred flesh and clean the bones without causing any harm.” He announced with pride in his eyes. 

Nia smiled at his excitement to distract him from Kara’s grimace. 

“Ok. So, everyone did a good job, bugs included. Can we get on with this please?” She asked, trying to tamp down the impatience she sometimes felt when the science squad nerded out around her. 

“His name is John Corben.” Nia offered from her seat; file folder opened in her hand. 

Kara noticed how Lena tensed, but decided to leave her questioning of the reaction for later, when they were alone. 

“And what do we know about Mr. Corben?” She asked, pulling out her notepad, fishing a pen out of her jacket pocket. She glanced at the computer screen that showed the photo of Corben, a blonde man who looked fairly intimidating. 

“35-year-old white male. Was in the navy but left 10 years ago after being honorably discharged and became the head of security for one Luthor Corp.” Nia tossed her booted feet up on the table in front of her, her eyes darting to where Lena had come to stand stock still. 

“And the note?” Kara asked Sam, trying to keep everyone’s focus on her and not on Lena. 

“Uh, yeah the note.” Sam answered, redirecting her gaze from her best friend to Kara. “It says ‘Find Otis Graves.’ I don’t know who that is, but obviously whoever killed this Corben guy was trying to send a message.” 

They all reacted to the gasp they heard leave Lena’s mouth, but Kara moved first. 

She walked over to Lena, warning everyone off with her eyes, and wrapped an arm around the shorter woman’s shoulder. 

“Put the bone down. Come with me.” She murmured into Lena’s ear, glad Lena complied easily and allowed herself to be led off the platform. 

Kara guided the two of them towards Lena’s office, shutting the door behind them and leading them both over to the plush red couch in the middle of the room. 

She waited for a moment, arm wrapped steadfastly around Lena’s shoulder, knowing that the other woman most likely needed time to voice whatever was bothering her. 

After a few long minutes she couldn’t stand the silence anymore. 

“You’re really quiet right now.” She ventured, hoping it would draw Lena out of the shell she had encased herself in. 

“It’s because I’m not talking.” Lena answered, burrowing further into Kara’s shoulder. 

“Ah yes, that must be it.” Kara nodded thoughtfully. 

She heard Lena snort, and knew her goofiness had helped somewhat. Lena sat up, extricating herself from Kara’s embrace and smoothed her hand down the front of the dress pants she was wearing that day. 

“John Corben was my brother’s enforcer at LuthorCorp. Corben, along with Otis Graves, was always by my brother’s side. Both of them escaped the moment Lex was arrested. There was no trace.” 

Kara said an internal fuck to herself. She had been hoping the murders weren’t connected but it seemed that they were, after all.

“Ok. Well the note gave us something to go off of, right? Obviously, someone who wants to kill one of Lex’s henchmen is trying to stop whatever it is he’s up to. So, it seems like right now we should follow the instructions we were given and find Otis Graves.” She surmised turning towards Lena. 

“You want to follow the instructions of someone who shot, strung up, and burned a body atop one of my family’s hotel buildings?” Lena scoffed and Kara steeled herself for the argument that was about to happen. 

“Yes. I think – and hear me out here – that whoever did this, wants to stop Lex. I don’t agree with their tactics obviously, but it’s clear by removing one of Lex’s two most trusted confidants they’re somewhat on our side and trying to help.” 

Lena looked exasperated and Kara got ready to dig in – she was right about this, and she knew she was. It would just take some time for Lena to get on the same page. 

“Kara, it could be a trap. I would feel better if we examined the skeletal remains of Lex’s victim, and let the science guide us, not some note that was shoved down a dead man’s throat by a psychopath.” Lena stood and began to pace around the office. 

“Lena. The entire lab is working on the remains of Lex’s victim. And I know, I know you are the best in the entire world, but these squints are pretty close behind you.” 

Lena shot her a look that said she didn’t agree, but she pushed on. 

“Listen, you know how sometimes, I know things that turn out to be true, despite the evidence?” She abruptly shifted tactics, trying hard to appeal to Lena’s rationality. She had proven herself time and time again to Lena, and she needed it to work right now. 

“I do not believe in your ‘gut,’ Kara, you know this. I think you’re very good at reading body language, and excellent at your job, but this man was fried to a crisp, this is different.” Lena argued and Kara shot up off the couch to take a more direct approach. 

“Lena. I am right about this. I know you don’t trust my gut, but you have to agree that it has helped us solve some cases in the past.” She came to stand in front of Lena, halting the other woman’s pacing. 

“I accept that as true. Not about your gut, but that you have solved a good number of our cases by noticing facts and patterns I did not.” Lena said, nodding and clenching her jaw. 

“Ok, ok, so that’s not nothing, Lena. I’m telling you now, that my instincts are telling me, we should follow this lead. These cases are connected, and this is our best nugget of information so far.” They were standing incredibly close now, close enough that when Lena lifted her gaze to Kara’s, Kara could feel the ghost of hot breath on her chin. 

“We haven’t worked a case together involving my family Kara.” Lena whispered, finally getting to the true root of what was bothering her, and Kara felt herself melt with the need to wrap Lena up firmly and never let her go. 

“No. We haven’t. But we are good at this Lena. We will figure it out. I just need you to trust me.” Kara pleaded, her fingers twitching with the urge to reach out and touch Lena. 

They stood, locked fully into each other for a few long moments, the tension thick. 

Finally, Lena relented. 

“I do. Trust you. We should pursue the Otis Graves lead.” Lena admitted and Kara broke into a smile. 

“Alright. Good. See, that wasn’t that so hard was it?” She joked as she backed away, going over to Lena’s desk to grab her purse. 

“What are you doing?” Lena asked as she watched Kara throw her keys and phone into a leather bag worth more than a month of Kara’s rent. 

“We are going to call my team, get Otis Grave’s address, and we are going to pay him a visit. Obviously.” Kara reasoned throwing Lena’s purse into the woman’s chest. 

She turned and strolled out of the office, turning back to eye Lena where she stood rooted to the spot. 

“Come on Luthor! Times a’wasting!” 

Lena groaned, but followed Kara regardless. 

\----

They pulled up in front of an expensive looking apartment building in downtown D.C., complete with a Doorman and Valet. 

Kara whistled as she took in the building and Lena turned to look at her, eyebrows raised. 

“What?” She asked, confused as to why Kara had made the noise. 

“Nothing. Just, maybe I’m doing it all wrong, working for the feds. I could never afford a place like this on my salary.” Kara said as she unbuckled her seat belt and exited the car. 

Lena joined her in stride as they made their way to the front doors, Kara flashing her badge at the doorman to be let in. 

“Yes, well the private sector notoriously pays much better than the federal government.” She noted, arms crossed as they waited for the elevator to take them to the 18th floor where Otis Graves resided. 

Kara just stared at her. “Yeah but like, my apartment isn’t that bad.” 

Lena watched as Kara fiddled with the tie clip holding her tie in place. 

“No, I quite like your apartment.” She agreed. “It’s homey. Although I could do without that much athletic décor.” 

The doors opened and they stepped inside, and Lena heard Kara gasp behind her. 

“Excuse me, that décor contains a lot of vintage, hard to find stuff! And it’s not décor, it’s memorabilia.” 

Lena rolled her eyes. “You have a ticket from a baseball game in a shadow box hung on your wall, Kara.” 

They stepped off the elevator and made their way towards apartment number 1805. 

“That ticket stub, I’d like for you to know, is from Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. It’s worth a lot of money and was really hard to find. Of course, it’s shadowboxed.” Kara reached up and straightened her tie, her chest puffed out. 

Lena just shook her head with a small smile on her face. 

They came to stand in front of the door. Kara knocked, and they waited for a few minutes before she knocked again. They were getting ready to turn and leave, when the door next to them opened. 

“Are you looking for Otis?” A middle-aged brown haired woman asked, poking her head out from her apartment. 

“Yeah, we are actually. Special Agent Danvers, FBI.” Kara answered, casually flashing her badge. “Do you know where he is?” She asked. 

The woman shook her head, but stepped more fully out of her apartment, yanking a key ring out of her pants. 

“No, haven’t seen him in a few weeks now. My name’s Clare Fitzgerald. I actually own his apartment along with my own. Otis rents from me, and he owes me a shit ton of money.” The woman fiddled with the keys on the ring, selecting one and gestured towards the door. 

“Well? You want in?” She asked and Kara nodded profusely. 

“That would be great, actually, thanks!” 

The woman unlocked the door for them, stepping aside to let Kara and Lena in. 

“No problem. You find him. I need him to either come and pay me back rent or get arrested so I can clear his shit out.” The woman huffed before she turned away and ambled back towards her own door. 

Kara carefully closed the door behind them with a quiet snick and turned with eyebrows raised at Lena. 

“Well, she seems lovely.” 

Lena laughed. “She did let us in, at least.” 

“True. Gotta love it when things work out like that.” Kara agreed, as she began to take in the apartment. 

It was modern, with its dark wood floors and light washed walls, the furniture sparse but nice. 

“You think these floors are real?” Kara asked as they walked around, opening doors as they went, looking into rooms for any clues as to Otis’s whereabouts. 

“Hmm? Oh, yes these seem to be authentic oak wood floors.” Lena distractedly replied as she took in a series of photos on the mantle above the fireplace. 

There was a single one that featured Lex – from his and Otis’s time at boarding school together. She didn’t linger on it. 

“Hey, check it out.” She heard Kara call from behind her and she turned to see what had the Agent interested. 

“What? It just looks like a door.” Lena said as she walked over to join Kara where she stood in front of the final unopened door of the apartment. 

“Yeah, but unlike every other room in this place, this door is locked. Look, it’s even got a keyhole.” 

Lena looked down, confirming that Kara was right. “What’s the significance of that?” She asked. 

Kara shrugged, slipping her jacket off her shoulders and setting it down on the back of a reclining chair. 

“Well, I don’t normally have a separate locked room in my home, not unless I have something to hide.” Kara answered. She looked at Lena for a moment. “Step back.” 

Lena did as she was asked, not getting to ask why before Kara raised her right foot up, and kicked the door open in an impressive show of strength. 

Kara shot Lena a cocky grin. “Too bad for Otis I don’t need a key.” 

Lena chose to ignore her partner, stepping into the room. 

What she saw there brought her to a standstill. 

Kara walked right into where Lena stood. “Lena, what…….” She trailed off, as she took in what had shocked Lena. 

On every surface of the wall, glossy photographs of Lena took up space. It was obvious from the shots that Otis had been following her for quite some time. There were photos of her and Kara, photos of Lena leaving the gym, home and work. There were even photos of her holding a cup of tea, sitting on her apartment balcony. 

The air in the room changed very quickly as Kara walked up to several photos. These seemed to feature red lines of some sort, with hashes and markings. 

“What is that?” Lena whispered, heart racing. 

Kara’s jaw clenched. “These red lines are ranges. Snipers use them, to pick out the perfect shot.” 

Kara turned to her, and Lena saw the flicker of fear in her partner’s eyes. “He’s hunting you.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now that school is online and my exams are mandatory pass/fail it turns out i can truly focus on what matters - writing long ass chapters for this AU 
> 
> also i just realized there are 12 seasons of bones, not 10 which is even better for my binge watching needs
> 
> find me on tumblr @urwelcomeforthis
> 
> all mistakes are my own

“I do not need a protective detail Kara.” Lena was vehement as she strode ahead of Kara at a fast pace as they entered the lab, her heels clicking on the floor, ponytail swishing rapidly back and forth. 

“A man is hunting you, Lena. So yeah, you kind of do, and besides I wasn’t asking.” Kara barked back as she followed, agitation rolling off of her in waves. 

Lena climbed the forensic platform in the lab, followed closely behind by Kara, who had to come to an abrupt stop when Lena whirled on her, finger poking into her muscled chest. 

“I can take care of myself, Agent Danvers. I do not need a team of your G-Men following my every move.” Lena’s eyes were shining and _dangerous_ and her nostrils flaring, but Kara wasn’t going to back down. 

She brought herself to her full height, allowing her to tower slightly over Lena. 

“I don’t give a shit what you think you can or can’t do against a trained hitman, Luthor. I’m the _Special_ Agent and what I say goes, and I say you’re getting a protective detail. Also, who says G-Men? Are you James Cagney?” Kara put her hands on her hips, and stared Lena down. 

“I don’t know who that is. Don’t try and confuse me with pop culture nonsense right now.” Lena fumed stepping away from Kara and snapping a pair of gloves. 

“Oh, excuse me, like it’s my fault you grew up in a sterile room with no hobbies besides reading thousand-year-old books and sitting on smelly old furniture.” Kara stalked over to where Lena had basically fused her eyes with a microscope sitting off to one corner. 

Lena’s head snapped up. “Reading books is a hobby, and just because not all of us think drinking beer and watching sports men throw balls around is a good time doesn’t mean we’re boring.” She defended and watched as Kara’s face softened, slightly. 

“I didn’t mean you’re boring Lena.” She closed her eyes and let go of a long breath through her nose. When she looked at Lena again, it was with a plea. “There is a man out there who has been watching you for weeks, and neither of us noticed. This isn’t a joke or something you can take care of by yourself.” 

Lena remained silent, and Kara stepped closer. 

“I promised you. I promised I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you. Let me make good on that, yeah?” She asked, with a soft voice. 

Lena clenched her jaw, but after a long moment nodded. 

Kara hung her head in relief. “Thank you.” 

The sound of someone behind them clearing their throat caused Kara and Lena to spring apart, Lena’s cheeks tinged with a blush. 

Alex and Nia were together, leaned against an empty table, both sporting shit-eating grins. 

Kara glowered at her sister. “What?” She snapped, but Alex, used to her sister, just rolled her eyes. 

“Nothing, Kar. Just, you know, we got an ID off the dentals from Lex’s latest art project.” 

Kara and Lena exchanged quick glances, both shifting from their argument into working the case immediately. 

“Who is it?” Lena asked, coming forward to examine the bones laid out on the surgical table. 

“Francis Wilbur, white male, aged 47.” Nia said as she joined Lena at the table. 

“The senator?” Kara asked, pulling out her phone to forward the information to Maggie. 

“Yeah, the junior senator from New York. He was reported missing this morning, so we were able to get a hit on his records. There’s not any trace evidence on the bones or from the scene, but the blood in the writing was his.” Alex said to Kara, but her gaze was leveled on Lena. 

“Why are you staring at Lena like that?” Kara asked when she looked up from her phone. 

“Because she has something to tell you now, I’d reckon.” Alex replied, and Kara watched as Lena’s shoulder’s tensed under her silk button up blouse. 

“What? Lena?” Kara blinked, eyes darting between Alex and Lena for a moment. Nia, for her part, looked just as confused as Kara.

“Senator Wilbur worked with Lex.” Lena’s voiced started, lower than usual. She turned to face Kara, leaning back against the table, arms crossed. 

“The verse, Kara do you remember what it said?” Lena asked, eyes boring into Kara’s own. 

“Something about betraying three times before sunrise, the story of Peter, right?” Kara responded, her feet taking small steps to bring her closer to where Lena stood, becoming more and more visibly distraught. 

“Wilbur helped Lex get in touch with some less than savory stockbrokers and wall street types in New York. They set up what was essentially a Ponzi scheme in order to steal money from investors for a slush fund. Wilbur was on the take. Until he turned state’s witness against Lex.” Lena continued, her arms becoming tighter and tighter around her middle. 

“He testified against Lex, he witnessed him abduct one of the people he killed last time.” Kara remembered now, having heard the story. 

Lena nodded. “He did. He was one of three people who turned against Lex, or at least that’s how Lex will have seen it.” 

“So, the verse wasn’t meant just for Wilbur, it was a warning for the other witnesses who Lex feels wronged him.” Kara brought a hand up to run through her hair. “Ok, so who were the other two witnesses who testified against Lex that fit this description?” 

“Well, there was Eve Teschmacher, Lex’s secretary. She saw enough that her testimony was instrumental.” Nia answered for a suddenly quiet Lena, who was visibly chewing on her lip, not making eye contact with anyone. 

Kara’s heart began to thunder in her chest, her feet finally carrying her the final steps to Lena. She reached out, placing a solid warm hand on Lena’s crossed forearm. 

“And you. Right?” She said quietly, and Lena finally looked up at her, eyes glistening. 

“My testimony, my work on two of the victims, was the linchpin. I provided the police with evidence, I took the stand against him, and to him that will be the biggest betrayal of all.” Lena confirmed, her voice steady despite the way her lip trembled. 

“I’m updating your protective detail, _now_. From this moment on, I am with you. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, I’m there. I will not let this bastard lay a single hand on you.” Kara informed Lena and watched as Lena ran a tongue over her top row of teeth before she nodded. 

Kara used the hand she had on Lena to pull her forward, wrapping her arms tightly around her shaking partner. Her eyes connected with Alex’s over Lena’s head, the gravity of the situation sinking in around them all. 

\----

Lena found out quite quickly that Kara had meant what she said about not leaving her side. 

They were sitting in Lena’s office later on, Lena at her desk typing away, Kara on the couch, going over various case files. 

Lena looked over and tried to reign in her annoyance at how Kara was sprawled out, shoes off, Wonder Women dress socked feet up on her coffee table. 

She was getting ready to once again bring up that she was capable of taking care of herself, that she didn’t need Kara to go to the extremes she was going to, when she heard Kara let out a soft hum to herself, and her train of thought derailed. 

She let her eyes travel further up the woman, noting she had taken off her jacket and rolled up her dress sleeves, revealing the inner forearm tattoo reading “Stronger Together” that Lena rarely had cause to see. 

Kara had an arm slung carelessly over the back of the couch, a pen top in her mouth, her brow furrowed as she wrote notes in the case files Maggie had delivered to her earlier in the day. 

Lena wasn’t sure how long she had been staring when Kara looked up and met her eyes, but she was startled out of thought by the action. 

Kara just grinned that lopsided smile at her, spitting the pen top out of her mouth and into her lap. 

“You know what I just realized?” She asked and Lena quirked an eyebrow in lieu of a verbal answer. “We have a perfect opportunity before us.” 

“Oh? And what opportunity is that?” Lena leaned back in her chair, bringing her steepled hands up to hide her smile as Kara got a look of giddy excitement in her eyes. 

“We can finally have that movie night I’ve been bugging you about!” Kara exclaimed, sitting up fully, folder of files tossed to the side. 

Lena’s mood shifted slightly – she hadn’t realized Kara’s new self-appointed bodyguard position would be continuing into the night. 

“I don’t care to watch many movies, Kara.” She replied drily, but apparently her answer didn’t deter her partner. 

She was still trying to turn over the idea of Kara in her home at night, the two of them expected to sleep in the same space, all while stamping down the twinge of a flutter she felt in her stomach, when Kara stood up and walked over. 

She felt her heart speed when Kara came to sit on the edge of the desk to the left of where Lena was sitting. She swallowed and worked to not push her chair away, overwhelmed by the sudden imbalance of their positions. 

Kara swung her legs back and forth from her perch and grinned down at Lena. “That’s because you haven’t seen many. But it’s fine, we don’t have to watch one, although I’m pretty sure you would nerd out on something like Star Wars. We’ll figure out something to do.” 

“Honestly I was planning on getting some more work done, and going to bed early, Kara.” Lena lied. She hadn’t been planning on much of all – maybe having a glass of wine while reading, but with the new reality she was living in where Kara Danvers would be in her apartment at night, she felt the need to distance herself as much as possible. 

“Nope, not happening, no work at home tonight Lena.” Kara told her matter-of-factly, and Lena felt her hackles raise. 

“You know I dislike when other people tell me what I can and cannot do, including you. I need to work and so I will.” She worked to keep her tone level instead of snapping at her partner. 

Kara just snorted, which indicated Lena’s reasoning hadn’t had any effect on her whatsoever. “Just because you say something to me in that definitive tone of yours doesn’t mean that it means anything to me, Lena. C’mon! I know this is a scary, tense situation, but we could relax just a little. We deserve it.” 

“As long as it’s quiet.” She gave in, slightly. She figured once they got to her apartment, she could enforce the quiet time rule fairly easily, in order to keep herself from doing anything that may ruin the partnership she so cherished. 

Kara slipped off the desk. “Ugh, fine. We can have some quiet relaxation time.” She made her way back over to the couch and began to stack her files. “I’ve got to run these down to the garage to hand off to Sawyer. Don’t leave this building, ok?” 

“I won’t.” Lena promised, and watched as Kara threw her jacket on, making her way out of the lab. 

After a single minute spent staring at her computer screen, Lena realized she was having trouble concentrating. Her mind was running over the fact that she would be spending the night with Kara, and she had no idea what to expect from it. 

The unknown had always been something she disliked – it was why science made sense to her. She could use equations and formulas and experimentation to answer her greatest questions. She could follow a set course of rules and laws and find the tangible, direct answers. 

What she felt about and experienced with Kara, however, did not fall into that reliable and comfortable ability to _know_. She didn’t know, despite everyone’s constant insinuations, what Kara thought of her beyond their partnership. 

Rationally, Kara made no sense to her. They were so different, in so many ways, yet Kara did things like pester her to grab dinner or lunch during and after work. She insisted they uphold traditions like celebratory drinks when they solved a case. 

The least rational part of all of it, was how much she craved the invitations. Even if she tried to turn them down, she knew how much she enjoyed their dinners and drinks. She liked that Kara saw something in her worth keeping around outside of work hours. 

For the first month or two of their partnership she had been able to compartmentalize her reactions to Kara. She was able to tell herself she found the other woman infuriating, cocky without cause, slow on the uptake, but none of those things were true. 

The longer she spent with Kara, the more fascinating, steady, and brilliant she found her. She found herself craving time with Kara, and that worried her. Kara was full of life and vigor, things Lena herself lacked and couldn’t bring herself to force on the other woman. 

Kara made Lena feel uncertain and unfocused, two things she was not used to feeling.

She sighed, using the palms of her hands to push herself back from her desk. 

She had long ago realized that when she was having an issue with something more….. _human_ , there was one reliable place to turn. 

She found herself outside of Sam’s office, and paused to take a breath before she pushed the door open and walked in. 

The first thing she heard was Alex’s loud laughter, and she took in the scene in front of her. 

Sam had a grin on her face, obviously having said whatever had caused Alex’s reaction, staring down at the red headed woman sitting on the edge of her desk. 

It made Lena’s heart lurch – it was so similar to how Kara had been perched on her desk only a little time before. 

Sam’s head snapped up when the door clicked shut and grinned in Lena’s direction. 

“Hey!” Alex’s head turned in Lena’s direction as well and she offered Lena a two-finger salute in greeting. 

“Sorry, I can come back, if I’m interrupting.” She said, hands knitted together. 

Sam, who like Kara had a knack of reading body language, immediately shifted into what Kara had once called ‘concerned friend mode.’ 

“You’re not. What’s wrong, babe.” Sam patted Alex’s thigh once before she walked over to Lena. 

“I – I’m not sure how to express it.” She replied honestly, letting Sam tug her over to the armchairs she had in the corner of her office. 

Alex joined them, and in a very Danvers manner, perched on the arm of Sam’s chair. 

“It’s about Kara, isn’t it?” Alex guessed, flinching when Sam slapped her side. 

“Let her get to it.” Sam hissed, before she turned to face Lena. 

“It is, actually. About Kara.” She admitted. She took a deep breath and looked around the office, looked at anything but Sam and her wife. 

Finally, she decided, it was time to dive in to the unknown. 

“How did you two know?” She asked, still unable to meet Sam’s eyes. 

“Know what?” Sam questioned, and out of the corner of her eye Lena noticed how she leaned forward. 

“Know how you felt, about one another.” 

She finally leveled her gaze on her friends. Sam looked giddy, but when her eyes landed on Alex, the woman was looking at her with a narrowed gaze. 

“Why?” Alex asked, ignoring Sam, honed in totally on Lena. 

“My brain, it’s different. It makes me the best at what I do, smarter than everyone in any room I’m in. But it also makes _me_ different. I can read a person’s bones, but I can’t read people’s emotions. Or my own, most of the time.” She huffed, pushing a strand that had come loose from her ponytail back behind her ear. 

“And are you having…. confusing emotions? About Kara?” Sam asked in a soft voice, the way she always did when she felt that Lena may bolt at any moment. 

“I – yes? I find that I am both looking forward to and dreading having Kara with me, particularly at night in my apartment.” 

“Do you know why you’re feeling conflicted about it?” Alex questioned, her features softening. 

“My feelings, they’re jumbled. If I understood I don’t think I would be here, subjecting myself to this.” She gave a heated response, mentally chastising herself for doing so, but to her friends' credit they didn’t seem to take offense. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m both grateful and frustrated in equal measure at how Kara is being so overprotective, despite knowing I can take care of myself.” 

“Alright, how about this – remove yourself from the situation at hand. How do you feel about Kara, on a normal given day?” Sam leaned over the space between them and took Lena’s hand to stop her fidgeting. 

Lena paused, and did as asked. She was able to shift away from the past few days, and think about Kara, as a whole. 

“I find her confusing, most of the time. She can be incredibly irrational. She once told me I had to throw salt over my shoulder at a restaurant because I spilt some, to ward off evil spirits, which do not exist. She’s impulsive – I think we all know that. I’ve also never experienced someone that can frustrate me so much, or that is so quick to challenge all of my assumptions. She has the ability to make me irrational and it’s like being unmoored.” 

Sam’s mouth dropped opened, slightly, and Alex’s eyes widened. 

“What? Is what I said wrong?” She asked nervously, not finding comfort in the reactions playing out in front of her. 

“No, sweetie, it’s not wrong. I think we’re both just a little shocked you said so much.” 

“Yes, I normally don’t like discussing such things, but I find it’s distracting me from my work.” She admitted, and felt Sam squeeze her hand. Alex snorted. 

“That’s how I knew.” The red-haired woman said, looking down fondly at Sam sitting below her. “I was here, in the lab, trying to run analysis on a victim’s liver tissue, but instead, I kept trying to find reasons to come to Sam’s office. Couldn’t get her out of my head.” 

Lena nodded thoughtfully, remembering the many talks Sam had subjected her to about Alex, often for the same reasons. 

“Kara…. Kara is someone who wears her heart on her sleeve. Or she used to.” Alex continued, focused on Lena again. “Her time in the service changed her. Not in a bad way, but I don’t think you see the things she’s seen, or do the things she’s done, and stay the same. But she’s been…. softer, happier, since you’ve been around. She’s started wearing her heart on her sleeve again. I’ve never seen her look as scared as she did on that platform today.” 

“I’m her partner. She doesn’t want me to die.” Lena supplied with a sharp nod. It made sense, with Kara’s past, that she wouldn’t want to lose yet another person. 

Alex groaned and slid further down the arm of the chair. 

“Yes. Kara doesn’t want you to die. But not _just_ because she’s your partner, babe. Alex is trying to tell you that all those confusing feelings you’ve got turning around in your head? Kara’s got them too.” Sam said trying to explain. 

“There’s no evidence of that.” Lena argued weakly, unable to accept her friends’ words at face value. 

Alex scoffed and was about to say something back, when there was a soft knock on the door. 

The three women looked up and saw Kara herself, head poking into the room. 

“Hey! You guys look like you’re talking about something serious.” She said as she fully stepped in, eyes darting from Alex to Sam to Lena. 

“Yeah, well it’s not every day you have a known serial killer and one of his weird bosom buddies actively hunting your best friend.” Sam said, the lie rolling effortlessly off her tongue. 

“Yep, yep that’s exactly what’s going on here.” Alex said, a much worse liar, particularly when it came to her sister. 

Lena tensed when Kara’s forehead crinkled as she took in Alex, but when no one said anything more, she shrugged her shoulders. 

“Ok, weirdo.” She said before she turned to Lena. “You ready to blow this popsicle stand?” 

“What?” Lena asked, looking quickly to Sam for a translation. 

“She’s asking if you’re ready to go home.” 

“Oh. Well just say that then.” She stood up and looked at Kara with exasperation. Kara just grinned at her. 

“Nope! It’s more fun when you get that crazy confused look on your face.” She turned to where Alex and Sam still sat giving them a wave. “See you guys later!” 

“Bye!” Sam called, a little too loudly, and Lena shot her a look over her shoulder as she followed Kara out of the office. 

\----

They stopped by Kara’s apartment first so she could pick up some things, and then due to Kara’s insistent begging, they picked up far too much Chinese food to take back to Lena’s. 

After Kara had briefed the agents assigned to stand guard outside Lena’s building, they made their way inside her apartment. 

Lena flicked on the kitchen lights, depositing the takeout bags on the counter, as Kara checked the rooms and windows to make sure nothing had been tampered with while they were out. 

“All good.” Kara said as she swaggered into the kitchen, her hands in their customary position, low on her hips. 

“Would you like wine with your family sized dinner?” Lena teased, as she pulled down plates and glasses. 

“Nah, I brought something special for us. But before I show you what it is, I’m going to go change. You should too, gotta get comfy for our no movie, no fun relaxation time.” Kara joked as she grabbed her FBI issue duffel bag from where she had dropped it, and headed to the room she had claimed as her own for the evening. 

“My clothes are comfortable.” Lena grumbled to herself as she dished out food onto plates. She walked over to the kitchen table and set the plates and silverware down, taking a seat as she waited on Kara. 

When Kara walked in only a few minutes later, she in a pair of low hanging worn grey sweatpants and a soft looking FBI t-shirt, that caused Lena’s mouth to go dry. In her hands, she carried a bottle and she waggled her eyebrows at Lena as she set it down on the table. 

“Scotch?” Lena questioned, taking the bottle and turning it over in her hands. 

“Yep! It’s been a tough couple of days – I figured we deserved a tough kind of drink.” Kara said over her shoulder as she leaned up on her toes to reach the high ball glasses Lena kept on the top shelf. 

Lena flushed as she watched Kara’s shirt ride up, revealing a strip of tan, muscled skin. 

She returned her attention to the bottle, not allowing her eyes to drift again until Kara plopped down in the chair across from her. 

“This is a surprisingly nice kind of Scotch.” She said as she handed it over to Kara. 

“Yeah, it’s one of my indulgences. Just can’t drink it too often, only for special occasions, ya know?” Kara said as she poured them each a glass, sliding one over to Lena. 

“I don’t know if being targeted by two separate psychopaths is a special occasion, Kara.” Lena said taking the glass and raising it to her lips. 

“Wait!” Kara cried, reaching out to grab Lena’s wrist and stop her from taking a drink. “We’ve got to toast, Lena. And the occasion isn’t special because your brother is the biggest asshat alive, it’s special because it’s our first sleepover.” 

Lena ignored the way her heart sped up at the use of the word ‘first,’ and instead held her glass out to tap it against Kara’s own. 

“Well, then, to our first sleepover.” She smiled. They clinked the rims together, each staring at each other as they took careful, measured sips. 

“God I’m so hungry.” Kara said when they finally looked away from each other. Lena watched as Kara grabbed a potsticker off her plate and shoved the entire thing in her mouth, cheeks puffing out. 

“You eat like a barbarian.” She said, and grimaced when Kara laughed, mouth full of food. 

“Just shut up and eat your gross tofu Luthor.” Kara teased after she swallowed. 

They ate in silence for a little while, and while Kara demolished enough food for three people, Lena only picked at her fried tofu and rice. 

She was lost in thought when a soft ‘Hey’ from across the table broke her out of her reverie. 

She looked up to see Kara watching her intently, head cocked to the side. 

“We’re going to catch him, you know. Both of them.” 

Lena swallowed her mouthful of food. “You can’t know that.” 

Kara sighed, setting down her fork and leaning forward, gaze intent on Lena’s face. “Why don’t you use that big scientific brain of yours and just believe me when I say that I am going to catch these assholes. You know I won’t stop until your safe.” 

“I do know that. But Lex, he’s smart, always a step ahead.” Lena rolled her neck, feeling the stress of the day in her shoulders. 

“Yeah maybe. But we’re smarter. You definitely are. You’re like, the smartest person in the world, so he may think he’s a step ahead, but you’ll get him.” 

Lena chewed her lip for a moment, remaining silent. 

“That’s not what’s bothering you though, is it?” Kara asked, intuitive to a fault. 

Lena glanced up. Kara was looking at her intently, and Lena watched as she carefully reached her hand out across the table. 

After a moment, Lena took it in her own. 

“No. I – that message he left. He doesn’t just want to kill me; he wants to kill me like one of his other victims. I don’t know why that bothers me so much more than the fact that my brother wants me dead, but it does.” 

Kara shook her head back and forth, her thumb rubbing Lena’s knuckles. “No, I don’t think he does. I think you’re right – that message included you. But I think he has Otis Graves out after you because he can’t bring himself to do it. He doesn’t shoot his victims, Lena. I think, more than anything he just wants you out of the way. He knows you’re going to outsmart him again.” 

“That’s not any better.” Lena whispered, her eyes darting down to their joined hands. 

“No, it’s not.” Kara agreed with a hum. “But it does mean he’s scared of you. Which is how I know we’re gonna catch him.” 

“Maybe.” Lena said before she pulled her hand back, standing to collect their empty plates. 

She didn’t miss the sad look that passed over Kara’s features, but she did ignore it. 

She began to fill the sink with water and was startled when Kara joined her. 

“Hey, let me take care of these. I’ve got to do some chores to earn my keep, who knows how long you’re going to have me as a roommate.” Kara winked. She hip checked Lena lightly to move her out of the way, taking up residence in front of the warm soapy water. 

“You don’t have to stay with me that long, Kara.” Lena said as she moved into the living room to collect her computer. 

“There’s a trained hitman after you, at the behest of your serial killer brother, Lena. I’m not having this argument with you again.” She heard the sink turn off and turned to see Kara leaned up against the archway of the kitchen, arms crossed over her chest, intense look on her face. 

“Still, there’s an agent at the door, a few down the street, and one on the roof. Do you really not have faith in your fellow agents?” She was baiting Kara now, she knew, but she found that she couldn’t stop, adding to the thick tension in the room. 

“Not when it comes to your safety, no. The only one I trust to do what’s necessary is me. You’re too important to leave anything to chance.” 

Lena scoffed. “Do all FBI consultants get this type of hands on care?” 

Kara stood up straight then, a dangerous glint in her eye. “You know that’s not why, Lena.” 

“Oh, so it’s not because I’m important to solving cases?” She challenged, raising both her voice and eyebrow. 

“God – you’re a fucking smartass sometimes you know that?” Kara took a step forward, running a frustrated hand through her hair. 

“I agree, I’m very smart, but I’m unsure as to how that has anything to do with my ass. And you still haven’t answered my question. Why is it so important that you be the one protecting me?” She clenched her jaw, felt her own nostrils flare. 

Kara stared at her, dumbfounded for a single second before she threw her hands in the air, anger rolling off of her in waves. 

“You know why, Lena! Fuck, stop acting like you don’t, it insults your intelligence, and my own.” She slapped the wall next to her in frustration. “You think I didn’t overhear the end of that conversation you had with Sam and my sister? I know you know why I won’t leave this to chance – so just stop!” Kara yelled, something she did so rarely that Lena found herself stunned into silence. 

Kara watched her, chest heaving, eyes wild, staring at her over the few feet of space that separated them from each other. 

“I need to hear you say it, Kara.” She finally willed herself to speak, her voice barely above a whisper. She needed to know it wasn’t all in her head – or something she had willed herself to be talked into by her friends because she was so desperate for it to be true. 

“Fine. You need proof? That’s fine.”

A beat passed, and Lena watched as Kara’s eyes flickered down to her lips. 

Another beat. 

And then Kara was moving towards Lena in a rush of frantic energy that Lena was surprised to feel herself returning. 

Kara’s hands landed on her face, hot breath falling on her lips the moment before Kara’s own collided roughly with them. Lena’s eyes closed as she fisted her hands into Kara’s unruly blonde hair, moaning at the sensation of a rough hold on her hips. The kiss was messy, wet and hot, Kara’s tongue sliding against her own, before she sunk her teeth down into Lena’s bottom lip. 

Lena groaned, a deep desperate sound and they separated, long enough for Lena to pull Kara’s shirt over her head, their lips and tongues reconnecting as they began to work together to unbutton Lena’s silk blouse. 

Kara pushed her hips into Lena’s guiding her back - stumbling step after stumbling step towards the couch. Lena heard the sound of buttons popping off her shirt when Kara finally got impatient, and together they pushed it’s remains to the ground. 

Kara’s lips moved from Lena’s mouth to her jaw, leaving a wet streak as she began to work her way down Lena’s neck. Lena wrapped her hand in Kara’s hair holding her there, and when the back of her knees hit the couch, she let Kara begin to guide her down. 

Her legs felt like liquid, her stomach heavy with want, her heart beating loudly in her own ears. She was breathing heavily as Kara’s lips and teeth on her neck were nipping, biting, and they both released heavy groans as the feelings between them finally found a home. 

They began to fully lower themselves down onto the couch, and all Lena could think about was the way Kara’s big, callused hands felt around her hips, on her back, when the sound of shattering glass behind them broke them apart. 

Without warning Kara used the hands she had on Lena to yank her to the ground, throwing her own body over top of Lena’s while the sound of more glass shattering rang in her ears. 

“Stay down!” She yelled, covering Lena’s head with her chest, and Lena felt herself being pressed hard into her apartment’s wood floors. 

A second later, Kara yanked Lena up, staying crouched low, keeping her body between Lena’s and the windows as they moved back towards the kitchen. Kara pulled her gun from where it sat on the kitchen table and took a moment to push Lena down behind the island in the center of the room. 

“Stay there. Do not move a single muscle.” Her voice was low, it brokered no arguments, and Lena found she didn’t have any. 

She nodded her agreement, and watched as Kara, still crouched, made her way over towards the window that had shattered. 

There was a streak of red across one of Kara’s muscled biceps, and Lena felt like she was going to vomit, right there on her kitchen floor. 

Kara pulled her phone out of her sweatpants pocket and held it up to her ear with her shoulder, gun clutched tightly in the hand of her uninjured arm. 

“This is Danvers. We’ve had two gun shots, sniper rounds from across the street, from the roof. Dylans was posted there – have the agents posted near the residence remain in place, on alert. The rest of you get up there - now.” She paused for a long minute and listened to what the agent on the other line had to say. “Fuck. Alright. Get an ambulance down here and I want 5 more agents posted. Target is secure with me, unharmed.” 

She hung up and stood, coming back over to where she had left Lena. 

She crouched down low, placed her right hand on the side of Lena’s face, palm hot on her cheek. “He got away, but he won’t try again tonight. He lost his window of opportunity.” 

Lena, on the verge of tears now that the adrenaline in her system was wearing down gripped Kara’s wrist with her hand. “He could have killed you, Kara.” She placed a hand below where the gash was visibly pouring blood, evidence of the bullet that had barely missed it’s intended target.

Kara dropped to her knees, setting her gun down at their sides. She pulled Lena into her bra-clad chest, held her tight, Lena’s ear against her own, racing heart. 

“It’s not me I’m worried about, Lena.” She murmured as she placed a kiss to the top of Lena’s head. 

Lena just clutched Kara tighter. “I know. That’s what makes me worry more.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> am i rushing the romance a little? maybe, but i want them to kiss so kiss they shall


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this chapter out and it clocked in at like 7,000 words so i split it into two parts to make it a little easier to read 
> 
> also, thank you to everyone for the reviews - they've been really awesome and i appreciate them a lot and i've been trying to reply to them as i update! 
> 
> find me on tumblr @urwelcomeforthis

Kara eventually prodded Lena into moving back to the kitchen table, and both of them redressed, Kara wearing a tank top in order to keep her wound clear. 

Maggie showed up not much later, the highest-level agent on the case not directly involved in the shooting.

Despite Lena and Maggie’s many objections, Kara point blank refused to go to the hospital to have her arm checked out. 

“No. I’ve had wounds worse than this. Just call Alex, she can stitch me up.” Kara said for the fourth time, wincing as she moved to cross her arms across her chest, choosing instead to let them fall to her side. 

“Fuck Danvers, I always forget how stubborn you are.” Maggie sighed as she pulled her phone out of her back pocket and brought it to her ear. 

When Maggie stepped into the living room where a team of FBI specialists were working to collect the glass and bullet casings, Lena took the opportunity to come closer to where Kara stood, silently fuming at being handled. 

“Kara.” She said, bringing a hand up to brush some hair behind the woman’s ear. 

Kara caught her hand with her own and brought it to her lips. 

“I’m ok. I promise, I just can’t afford an ER visit, and it’s not that bad. It just needs some stitches.” She assured Lena, twining their fingers together. 

Lena sighed. Her own hands were still unsteady, or she would stitch Kara herself. Instead she just nodded and leaned slightly into the body standing in front of her. 

Kara dropped her hand in favor of wrapping an arm around her lower back, her chin coming to rest on the top of Lena’s head. 

“You should pack a bag before we leave to go see Alex. We won’t be able to stay here tonight.” Kara murmured into Lena’s hair as Lena wrapped her arms around Kara’s waist. 

She closed her eyes and breathed in Kara’s scent, a slight sweaty tang from their earlier activities and the adrenaline of almost dying invading her senses. 

From her right side she heard a throat clearing and made to move away, but Kara only held her tighter. 

She opened her eyes and watched as Maggie’s gaze darted between the two women who stayed wrapped tightly together before she spoke. “Alex said she would meet us at the lab. Fair warning before we go though, she sounded pissed.” 

“Like, the time you killed her fish pissed or the time I broke my wrist punching a wall pissed?” Kara questioned. Lena could feel Kara’s chin against her head as it moved with her words. 

To her right, Maggie snorted. “I’d say a fun combination of both. Let’s go before it turns into ‘Kara and Maggie got drunk and trashed the entire apartment’ pissed.” 

“Fuck. Yeah don’t want to deal with that again.” Kara reluctantly released Lena from her hold. “Lena’s just gotta grab a few things first and then we can jet.” 

Maggie nodded, already turning to speak to the agents at the scene as Kara took Lena’s hand and led her down the hall towards her bedroom. 

Kara flopped down on the bed as Lena moved towards her closet, careful to keep the blood still slowly trickling down her arm from getting on the bedspread. 

Lena brought a small leather duffel over and set it next to Kara. As she began packing clothing and toiletries, she noticed Kara’s eyes steadfastly trained on her. 

“What?” She asked softly, no hint of venom or annoyance in her tone. 

“Nothing, just like looking at you I guess.” Kara shrugged with a grin. 

“I think the blood loss is getting to you.” She knew her cheeks were colored with her blush, but found that she didn’t care, despite the gravity of the situation they found themselves in. 

She was in the process of zipping up her bag when Kara’s hand darted out and stilled her actions. 

When she turned to meet the blue eyes looking at her, she was startled at the depth she found in them. Kara always looked at her differently, she had always been afraid to put a name to what she found when their gazes met. But now – well, now things had changed. 

She wasn’t afraid of Kara’s adoration, or the way she seemed to be looking right into Lena’s heart. Her soul, if she had believed in such a thing. 

“Before we go, I just wanted to say that tonight was not because of stress or adrenaline. It was not because of any of the things I’m sure you’re gonna turn over in that big brain of yours later on.” Lena swallowed as Kara’s thumb began to trace reverently across the back of her hand. 

“I have wanted to kiss you for a while Lena. I know we need to talk more about it later but it’s important you know that before anything else.” 

Lena felt her eyes become glassy and she managed a stuttered nod. “Thank you.” She whispered. “I’ve wanted that for a long time too.” She shifted her eyes down to where their hands laid together and smiled. 

Kara squeezed her hand once before she pulled away, and Lena finished the task of zipping the bag closed. 

Standing up from the bed, Kara groaned. “Alright. Let’s go get this over with.” She said as she grabbed Lena’s bag and slung it over her good shoulder. 

She made her way out of the room and Lena followed; her heartbeat steady for the first time since the shooting. 

\------

Alex was, as Maggie and Kara had predicted, beyond pissed as she stomped into the lab, pajama pants tucked into Doc Martens, red hair pulled out of her eyes with a cloth headband. 

Kara, Lena and Maggie were sat together on the cluster of couches in a corner near the back and Lena watched as both women beside her tensed. 

Sam followed in behind her wife leisurely, looking much more put together in a pair of jeans and old Harvard Med Sweatshirt, but when she caught sight of Maggie her pace sped up to match Alex’s. 

Kara snorted from her spot next to Lena, but her smile melted off her face when Alex finally reached them, looking absolutely livid. 

“What the _fuck_ , Kara?” Alex whisper shouted and Lena sank back into the couch behind her, leaning imperceptibly behind Kara’s side. 

“Alex before you start, it’s just a flesh wound. No bone, nothing like that. I just need stitches and I wasn’t going to spend $6,000 on an ER visit when I knew you could fix me!” Kara defended herself, working to hide the wince when she held her hands up in surrender to her older sister’s wrath. 

“She’s got a point babe. FBI health insurance is not the best.” Sam said as she joined Alex’s side, her eyes dancing in amusement as she took in Kara’s terrified face. 

“You’re not kidding.” Maggie mumbled under her breath, but Sam heard it, her eyes narrowing on the agent. 

“Sawyer.” Sam’s tone was suddenly much less jovial, and Lena allowed her gaze to flicker back and forth. 

“Arias.” Maggie responded, but unlike Sam there was a hint of laughter in her tone. 

Alex sighed. “Sam, I don’t have time for a dick measuring contest right now.” 

“Yeah Samantha, and besides if we were to measure dicks you could ask _my_ wife – mine’s definitely bigger.” Maggie said with a wink as she held up her own ring laden hand. 

Sam, for her part had the decency to look properly chastised. “Sorry. Old habits, and all.” 

Lena cleared her throat. “As fascinating as this is, seeing as none of you have the anatomy to do what it is that you’re speaking of, maybe we could focus on the issue at hand?” She raised an eyebrow and took the time to stare down the three women individually. 

“Yeah I agree with Luthor. Kara get your ass to my office so I can fix the arm where you got _shot_ tonight.” Alex said as she reached forward to yank Kara up. 

“Ow! Alex that hurt, you gotta be more delicate, where is your bedside manner?” Kara yelped as Alex began prodding her forward with little care. 

“Most of my patients are dead, Kara. If you wanted bedside manner you should have gone to the motherfucking hospital.” She snapped as the two disappeared down the hall. 

“Those two are a trip.” Maggie said once they were out of earshot and Sam let out a hum of agreement. 

“They’re something alright.” She agreed as she stared down the now vacant hallway. She turned after a moment and glanced at Lena. “You ok, sweetie?” 

Lena startled at having been addressed, her thoughts on whether or not she should have accompanied Kara and her sister. “Why wouldn’t I be?” She questioned and Sam sighed. 

“You were shot at. Kara actually _got_ shot. There are two separate and equally devoted murderers after you at the moment, and a few other things I can think of but won’t bring up right now.” Sam said as she threw herself down on Lena’s side furthest from Maggie. 

“Oh. No, I’m fine.” Lena said, not meeting Sam’s eyes and choosing instead to busy herself checking her cuticles over. There was blood embedded behind the nails of her hands – Kara’s blood. She curled her fingers into two fists instead. 

“I’m going to touch you now, ok?” Sam asked quietly from her side, and at Lena’s nod, wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into warmth. 

Maggie watched them for a moment before she got up and pulled a chair around to sit directly in front of Lena. 

“Lena, I know this is not what you want to be doing – but I’ve put it off for long enough.” She looked genuinely regretful as she pulled out a notebook from her leather jacket pocket and tapped the pen against the cover. 

“What is it you need, exactly Agent Sawyer?” Lena asked with an undercurrent of anger in her tone, jaw clenched. 

Sam squeezed her shoulder. “Babe, you were shot at. She’s just doing her job. Kara hand-picked her, you can trust her on this.” 

Maggie shot Sam a grateful look which was received with a short nod. “She’s right. I’m not trying to be an ass. But you were the victim of an attempted homicide tonight.”

Lena waved a hand in the air. “Ask away, agent.” 

“Thank you. Where were you when the first shot shattered the balcony window?” She asked in a business-like tone. 

Lena tensed, her pulse quickening. “I was speaking with Special Agent Danvers in my living room.” She lied – not ready to reveal what had happened between she and Kara, and especially not in a way that could end up as part of the case. 

Maggie was looking down at her notepad as she wrote in messy cursive, but Sam was gazing at Lena curiously. 

Lena steadfastly ignored her friend. She knew she was a terrible liar – it had been pointed out to her many times, but she wasn’t ready for whatever Sam would undoubtedly ask her. 

“What happened then?” Maggie asked, clueless as to the tension that had filled the room between the two friends as she continued to write. 

“Kara – Special Agent Danvers – threw me down on the ground and covered me with her body. That was when I heard the second shot. That was the one that hit her.” Lena said as she continued to stare at Maggie who only looked up to indicate she should continue. She took a deep breath and began to recount the rest of the tale. “Once the second shot was fired, she pulled me into the kitchen and grabbed her sidearm. She placed me in a safe position on the ground behind the island and went over to inspect the window before calling one of the agents.” 

Maggie nodded as she finished. “Yeah ok, that’s what Kara said too. Just had to get a statement. You understand.” 

“Yes, I understand Agent Sawyer. If that’s all?” She asked, preparing to stand up to go find Kara, and Maggie flashed her a smile. 

“Yeah that’s all, you’re free to go.” 

Lena murmured her thanks and began to walk quickly down the hall, Sam’s eyes on her the entire way. 

\------

Lena found Kara sitting on Alex’s shiny metal coroner’s table as her sister methodically stitched the previously gaping wound shut. 

Kara had somehow found a lollipop, her jaw bulging from the spot where she held it between her cheek and teeth. She smiled widely around it when she saw Lena walk into the room. 

“Hey!” Kara removed the candy with her good hand and waved Lena over. 

Some of Kara’s hair had fallen into her eyes, and Lena went to push it behind her ear before remembering herself. She pulled her arm back just in time, but not before Alex could see and catch her eye. 

“So, how was the sleepover before, you know, you guys almost got murdered?” Alex’s tone sounded anything but nonchalant, not quite having mastered Sam’s ability to poke and prod. 

Kara almost choked on the lollipop she had placed back in her mouth. “It was fine. We ate dinner, I did the dishes, normal sleepover stuff.” 

Lena suddenly found the floor of the office quite interesting. It wasn’t that she was ashamed to have finally broken the seal of the tension between she and Kara – but it was new, by only a few hours. They hadn’t even had a chance to talk about it yet, and she wasn’t ready to share. 

“Uh huh.” Alex said sounding like they had somehow answered her unasked question, but when she didn’t push anymore, Lena breathed a sigh of relief. 

“So, Maggie was telling me that the reason we haven’t been able to locate Eve Teschmacher is because she was placed in witness protection after the trial.” Kara shifted the topic of conversation, candy clicking against her teeth as she talked. 

Alex, finished with the stitches, slapped a gauzy bandage over the wound and walked over to throw her trash away in a biohazard container. “Well that’s good right? It means he’s less likely to be able to get to her.” 

Lena was going to disagree but the dark look that passed over Kara’s face made her pause. 

“Lex has a lot of people on the inside still. I can’t get in touch with Eve, so we’ve put in a request to have her moved and have an additional U.S. Marshall posted at her location.” 

“Have you guys turned up any other leads?” Alex rejoined them as Kara hopped down from the table, her hand brushing against Lena’s. 

“Yeah, apparently Otis Graves has a sister in the area, Mercy. She’s a high up at one of the big defense contractors for the Pentagon so we’ve got to be careful but it’s worth the visit.” Kara had begun to move her arm back and forward, testing the range of motion in her shoulder against the stitches now in her bicep. 

Lena couldn’t help but watch, momentarily distracted as the muscles in Kara’s arm and shoulders flexed with each movement. 

She heard Alex mummer a single “gross” under her breath and tore her eyes away, feeling heat crawl up her neck and ears. 

Behind them the sound of footsteps down the hall caused Lena to straighten herself up, and she quickly crossed her arms across her stomach, forcing herself to maintain an air of professionalism despite the late hour. 

“You all good?” Sam asked Kara as she and Maggie joined them, and Kara nodded eagerly, obviously ready to go home. 

“Yeah turns out Alex is good for something after all.” She said with a waggle of her eyebrows, letting out an undignified yelp when Alex lightly backhanded her covered stitches. 

“Then I say we all go home and get some rest. Danvers, I know you’re going to want to go and question Mercy Graves but I’m gonna insist you take the morning off and get some rest. You too Luthor.” Maggie’s tone left no room for argument, and for once Lena was tired enough that she found the idea of a late morning wasn’t unappealing. 

“Yeah I’m not going to complain about sleeping in. Have the agents been relocated?” Kara asked as the group turned and began to make their way towards the exit to go to their respective homes. 

“Yep. Should be all good. There’s no easy shot into your apartment either, so hopefully that staves this dude off for a night, at least.” 

“Are you two sure you don’t want to come to our place?” Sam asked, a worried look on her face. “We can set up the guest room for you Lena, and the couch for you Kara.” 

“Nope! We’re all good but thanks Sam.” Kara’s response was a little too forced, a little too bright, but if anyone noticed they didn’t say anything. 

Lena felt a flutter of nerves in her stomach – she wanted to be alone with Kara as much as Kara wanted to be alone with her, it seemed. 

As they reached the elevator bay, Lena finally spoke for the first time in a while, turning towards Sam and Alex. “Thank you two, for coming in. I’m going to insist you both take the morning as well. It’s late, and we all need to be fresh in order to do our work.” 

Alex looked shocked, her mouth dropping open, eyes wide. “Lena Luthor are you giving me the morning off?” 

Lena cocked her head to the side. “Yes, Dr. Danvers, I believe that is what I just said.” 

“I had to beg for two weeks for our honeymoon. Are you sick? You sure you weren’t shot? Like in the head?” 

“Shup up Alexandra.” Kara said, her tone playful but the undercurrent of warning wasn’t lost on anyone as they stepped into the elevators taking them down to the parking garage. 

Alex huffed but stopped poking at Lena, and instead began to excitedly plan a morning off with Sam. 

“Babe, we can actually go and get breakfast at the diner. But the absolute first thing I’m doing when we get home is shutting off our alarm.” 

“We still need the alarm babe; you sleep like the dead.” Sam said and Lena let her back rest against the wall as they moved down, more than ready to retreat to the safety of Kara’s apartment. 

She closed her eyes as the conversation around her continued, content to feel the steady warmth of Kara at her side.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fair to say after this chapter that if i had been writing bones the will they won't they stuff would have lasted approximately 7 seconds into season 1 
> 
> also this is the second of two chapters in one update so if you start to read and its confusing i split ch. 4 into two parts lol  
> 
> 
> find me on tumblr @urwelcomeforthis

Lena could feel her nerves from earlier return as she and Kara entered the agent’s well lived in apartment.

She watched awkwardly from the doorway, hovering as Kara disappeared into the bedroom to deposit their respective bags. 

When she reappeared, she took in Lena’s tense body language, and Lena heard her sigh under her breath. 

“Hey, why don’t you go and change into your sleep clothes, and I’ll make us some pancakes.” She offered, trying to ease Lena’s obvious discomfort. 

“You don’t want to go to sleep?” Lena asked as she took a few halting steps further into the apartment towards Kara. 

Kara just shrugged her shoulders. “I think I’m still a little worked up, you know? Anyways, I’ll sleep when I’m tired but for now, I’m gonna make us pancakes.” 

Kara grinned at her as she turned to make her way into the kitchen, and Lena took the opportunity to head back to Kara’s room. 

She had been in Kara’s apartment before, but not in the other woman’s bedroom. It had always seemed like a line that shouldn’t be crossed. 

The furniture in the room was wooden and well worn, but carefully cleaned. Pictures of Kara and her family and friends were lining the dresser, and Lena took a moment to look at one of Kara in her dress blues, arms on Alex and her foster mother Eliza’s shoulders. 

She smiled to herself at that lopsided grin she cherished so much before she made her way over to the bed where Kara had set down her bag. She changed quickly into her pajamas and took a moment to wipe her face free of its makeup in the attached bathroom. 

The smell of pancakes cooking drew her back out into the main living area of Kara’s apartment, and she joined the other woman in the kitchen, taking a seat at the small table. 

Kara glanced over her shoulder as she flipped a pancake in the skillet. “You know, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting you to be wearing some sort of all silk button PJ’s.” 

Lena furrowed her brow, taking in the soft t-shirt and sweatpants she had donned. “No? I prefer fabrics that breathe more when I sleep. Do you wear silk pajamas?” 

Kara flipped off the burner and brought a plate stacked high with pancakes to the table, setting it down in the middle with a bottle of syrup. 

“No, no silk for me either.” She joined Lena at the table, sliding some of the steaming breakfast onto two plates, pushing one over to Lena. 

They fell into a slightly burdened silence as they sat and ate, and Lena watched as Kara began to fidget, her leg bouncing more as time continued to pass. 

Lena finished her last bite and carefully set her fork and knife down, folding her hands on the table in front of her. “So, I suppose we need to talk.” She decided to jump in, realizing Kara was struggling in the silence, but unwilling to push. 

“Yeah, we do. Can we not do it here? The couch is better.” Kara stood up, her chair scraping against the tiled floor and jerked her head towards the living room. 

Lena stood and followed, sitting down on the cushion next to Kara, and both turned their bodies towards the other. 

“I would understand if you wanted to put a pause on what happened earlier.” She began, running a nervous hand through her hair. 

“What? Why would I want to do that?” The crinkle that formed between Kara’s eyebrows when she was confused was apparent on her features as she cocked her head to the side. 

“I remember what you said earlier. However, I am aware that perhaps, when it comes to a suitable romantic partner, I am lacking in some areas.” 

Kara’s hands darted out and she took both of Lena’s holding them in her lap. “I don’t think that, Lena. Not even close.” 

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did, Kara. I am aware – or I have been told in the past, that I can be quite cold.” Lena stared resolutely at the wall behind Kara’s shoulder, working her hardest to remain detached. 

She wanted to be with Kara – she knew that to be true, even if it went against most of what she rationally knew about herself. It was only fair to offer a concrete out before things got too involved. 

“You’re not cold, Lena. You’re a genius, you think in different ways than most people do, that’s all. I have never thought you were cold.” Kara’s tone was incredibly earnest – and Lena found herself meeting the warmth in her blue eyes. 

“You’re sure?” 

Kara smiled at her – a new smile Lena wasn’t sure she had seen before. It was soft, and it made Kara’s eyes crinkle at the corners. “Yeah, Lena I’m sure. I’m pretty sure I’ve been falling in love with you, just the way you are, for a while now.” 

Lena’s heart stuttered in her chest, and she felt her chin quiver as she tried to sort through her emotions. 

“I – why would you tell me that?” She asked not because she doubted it, and not to be cruel – but because Kara knew Lena well enough to know saying something so emotionally charged was a risk. A risk it would overwhelm Lena, and end with them both brokenhearted before they even started. 

Kara just kept smiling that achingly soft smile at her, extracting one hand to bring up to the side of Lena’s neck. “Not to freak you out, I promise. I just know how much you value honesty, and I feel like this is going somewhere.” 

Lena shivered as Kara’s thumb began to trace under her jawline. “You do?” 

Kara nodded her head, shifting closer on the couch towards Lena. “Yeah I do. Wanna know something else?” 

Lena nodded as she leaned further into the heat of Kara’s palm, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment at the feeling. 

When she opened her eyes again Kara was closer, her head tilted, eyes lidded as she began to bridge the gap between them. Lena felt her hot breath as it fanned across her own lips. 

“I’m going to kiss you.” Kara said and then, for the second time that night, their lips connected. 

Unlike the first time, this kiss lacked the heat of anger and exasperation. Their earlier frantic pace had been replaced with something much sweeter. Their lips moved together slowly, closed mouthed, content to feel each other in such an intimate way. 

Kara broke the kiss after a few long moments and leaned her forehead against Lena’s, noses brushing. 

“Bed?” She whispered and Lena felt each exhale against her own lips. She nodded, Kara’s forehead moving her own. 

Kara stood up from the couch and took Lena’s hand, guiding her back towards the bedroom. She led Lena over to the bed, and they sat down together, side by side. 

“Is this ok?” Kara asked as she placed a hot open palm on Lena’s thigh. “We can just sleep, if you want.” 

Lena knew they needed to talk more – she needed things to be more solid, more clarified, but in this moment, she couldn’t bring herself to act rationally. 

“No, no sleep. Not yet.” She turned herself more fully into Kara, letting the hand on her thigh slide further up. 

“Thank god.” Kara grinned as she leaned in and captured Lena’s lips once more. 

Lena’s brought her hands up to twist into the fabric of Kara’s tank top, pulling her down over her own body as her back hit the bed. Kara’s tongue darted out to lick into Lena’s mouth, and she sighed at the contact as she met it with her own. 

Kara’s arm wound its way under her back, lifting her in an easy show of strength to move them further up the bed. Lips began to wander down her neck, nipping and sucking and Lena let her legs fall open as Kara shifted her hips and ground down against her. She moaned brokenly at the sensation, tugging at Kara’s shirt, desperate to feel her skin. 

They parted for Kara to lean back and take her top off, followed quickly by her bra, and Lena worked to rid herself of her own sleep shirt. 

Kara eyed her hungrily from above, eyes darkened as they raked down Lena’s bare chest. 

“You’re perfect.” She rasped before she leaned down and began tracing Lena’s clavicle with her tongue, dipping it into the hollow of her throat. Lena felt her hips surge up, felt Kara groan against her skin as she worked her way down further. 

Her lips made messy and wet contact with the side of Lena’s breast, mouthing the skin there before she sucked hard. Lena’s hands flew to the back of Kara’s head, her clit throbbing as Kara continued to mark her, biting and sucking as she made her way to a stiff, pink nipple. 

She took it into her mouth lightly, the tip of her tongue flicking against it as her hand came up to squeeze and knead the flesh of Lena’s other bare breast. 

“Bite it, please.” Lena begged, surprised at how broken her voice had already gotten. She could feel the wetness between her thighs as Kara continued the steady grinding of her hips, and when Kara complied, and her teeth sank down harshly, Lena let out a broken and stuttered moan. 

Lena was lost in sensation, her entire body hot and thrumming with energy. When the large, callused hand Kara had been using to pinch the nipple not currently between her teeth began to trace down her side, Lena tugged at Kara’s hair. 

“Kara, _please_.” She breathed and almost cried when Kara pulled away from her body to sit back on her knees between Lena’s thighs. 

Kara’s fingers hooked under the waistband of Lena’s pants and underwear as she began to tug them slowly down and off Lena’s body. The heat of Kara’s gaze caused Lena’s breath to catch in her throat, releasing only when Kara caught her leg and kissed the inside of her calf. 

“What do you like?” Kara asked as she shimmied out of the rest of her own clothing. 

“Anything. Just touch me.” Lena pleaded as Kara settled back down against her, skin on skin. Kara captured her lips in a heated kiss as they began to grind against each other again, the feeling elevated by the lack of clothing. 

Lena could feel wetness coating the insides of her thighs, sticky and hot, making her more desperate for relief. Without breaking the kiss, she felt as Kara lifted her hips, a hand sliding down between them. 

At the first touch of big, exploratory fingers between her folds, she gasped out against Kara’s lips, her thighs widening, begging for Kara’s touch. 

The pads of Kara’s fingers searched for a moment before landing on her clit and Lena arched up, moaning loudly at the feeling as Kara began pressing against it. 

“Wanna be inside you.” Kara mumbled against Lena’s neck as she sucked on Lena’s pulse point and it was all Lena could do to nod fervently in response. 

Kara leaned up on a forearm, hovering over Lena as her fingers moved lower, splitting her wet slicked folds open before two fingers pressed against her opening. Lena slammed her eyes shut as her pulse thudded in her ears. Kara circled her entrance for a moment, dipping in barely before pulling back, her fingers playing in the slick wetness she had created. 

“Lena, look at me, open your eyes.” Kara whispered and Lena pried her eyes open to meet Kara’s gaze above. 

As soon as their eyes met, Kara sank two fingers into her, deep and unrelenting, finally filling Lena. 

The knowledge that Kara was inside of her, that she finally knew the answer to the question of how it would feel, overwhelmed her, and she was desperate when she leaned up and captured Kara’s lips in a messy open-mouthed kiss. 

When Kara began to move, using her hips to push her fingers back into Lena on each withdrawal, Lena practically sobbed in pleasure. 

“Fuck, you’re tight, Lena. You feel so good.” Kara groaned as she collapsed forward, burying her head in Lena’s shoulder as she picked up her pace, fucking into Lena without restraint. 

“ _God_ , Kara, yes just like that.” Lena moaned as she brought her hands down to Kara’s back, trying to pull her deeper somehow, legs wrapping around her hips. 

Kara pulled back, propped up on one arm as she added a third finger, filling and stretching her more, both of them groaning at the feeling as Kara curled her fingers. 

“Can you come like this?” Kara panted as Lena clawed at her back. 

“I need – I need –“ Lena gasped, reduced to stuttering, trying and failing twice to get her words out in a coherent manner, but when she felt Kara’s thumb push down on her clit, she stopped trying altogether. 

When Kara’s thumb began to press harder, moving in time with her harsh thrusts, Lena felt the heat in her stomach build to an inferno, a dying star collapsing in on itself right there on Kara’s bed. 

“I’m going to come.” She moaned as her thighs began to shake around Kara’s hips. 

“Fuck _yes_ , come around my fingers baby.” Kara ground out as she doubled her efforts, her pace becoming more rapid as she slammed into Lena over and over again. 

The inferno in her stomach broke, exploding inside her in an all-consuming way, and she felt her entire body tense as she let out a high-pitched whine, coming hard against Kara. 

Her body was still buzzing when she felt Kara withdraw and settled down beside her, both of them breathing hard. 

She rolled to her side, working to nuzzle her way into Kara’s arms, and she tipped her head back to meet her lips in a sweet, slow kiss. 

They exchanged soft, chaste kisses for a long while as Lena came back to Earth, Kara’s fingers tracing delicate patterns up and down her exposed back. 

When Lena finally pulled back, she didn’t miss the dark edge still visible around Kara’s pupils. She began to work her hand down Kara’s side, hand coming to rest against her hip bone. 

“What do you like, Kara?” She parroted Kara’s earlier question as her thumb moved back and forth against exposed skin. 

Kara nudged her nose against Lena’s cheek, turning her body on her side to mirror Lena’s. 

“Will you touch me?” She asked and Lena nodded, leaning in to kiss her as she brought her hand to the heat between Kara’s legs. 

Kara was dripping wet and Lena groaned at the feeling as she ran her fingers between soft, hot folds. Kara draped her thigh over Lena’s hip, giving her more room to work with, and Lena brought her fingers up to rub circles into Kara’s clit. 

“Yes, right there.” Kara whimpered as she began to move her hips in time with Lena’s fingers, pressed so close they were sharing each individual breath. 

“Inside?” Lena asked and when Kara ground out a softly hissed ‘yes’ she moved her fingers down, sliding two easily into wet tight heat. She kept her palm pressed against Kara’s clit as she worked and curled her fingers, Kara’s hips moving with each thrust. 

When she found the soft front wall inside of Kara, she focused there, rocking her fingers against it on each pass. Kara curled an arm around Lena’s back, pulling them flush against each other as they moved, her eyes heavily lidded but never leaving Lena’s own. 

When she came, she was silent – her eyes fluttering shut, her mouth open in a silent scream as she tightened around Lena’s fingers, hot and slick wetness gushing down her fingers and palm. 

Lena kept her fingers moving as she worked Kara through the aftershocks of her orgasm, only pulling out when Kara’s hips stilled their own movement. 

She reached behind her to wipe her wet fingers off on the sheets, and Kara sat up to draw the top sheet and a blanket around them. She rolled to her back, bringing Lena with her, settled against her strong chest. 

Lena traced her fingers across Kara’s collarbone, sated and content wrapped up in her partner’s strong arms. 

“Well, at least we know that works.” Kara mumbled into Lena’s hair as she placed a kiss to the crown of her head. 

Lena smiled, turning her head to place a kiss to Kara’s breastbone. “Yes, it does.” 

They sank into a comfortable silence, and Lena thought Kara had fallen asleep, surprised when she spoke again. 

“An intellectually rigorous person would never commit to a monogamous relationship.” She murmured and Lena felt her heart skip a beat. 

“What?” She paused her fingers ministrations, suddenly feeling unsure. 

“You said that to me, once.” Kara said shifting as Lena pushed herself up to lean over Kara on an elbow. 

“Oh. Yes, I remember – the woman whose fiancé killed her.” She furrowed her brow and began to chew on her bottom lip. 

“I was just wondering if you still think that. Because I need to know. I just – I think this is important between us, and I want to do this with you, Lena.” Kara brought a hand up to push some of Lena’s fallen hair behind her ear with a soft smile. 

“Sex?” Lena asked, wanting to be sure she understood where the conversation was going, knowing it was too important to leave anything to chance. 

Kara snorted. “No. I mean, yes, I would like us to have like, a lot of sex, but I want more, with you. You know, relationship wise.” 

“I – I know, that rationally, love is chemical process.” Lena began, closing her eyes as she chose her words, hoping she would be able to convey to Kara was she was feeling, as they finally seemed to be finishing the conversation from earlier. “But the more I think about it, the more I realize what you said that day was also correct.” 

“What did I say?” Kara asked with her soft voice, the one she used to let Lena know there was no pressure, to take her time.

“That love trumps logic, that it can make you irrational but it can be in a _good_ way.” She opened her eyes and found Kara smiling up at her. She smiled back. “It means, I want this- a relationship with you - too, Kara.” 

Kara’s face lit up and she pulled Lena forward, placing goofy, sloppy kisses all over her face. 

“You know what it also means?” She teased when she finally stopped, letting Lena settle back against her chest. 

“Hmmm. What?” Lena felt her eyes growing heavy as Kara began to scratch at her scalp, warm and content in her girlfriend’s arms. 

“That you, Dr. Lena Kieran Luthor, admitted I was _right_.” Kara smugly whispered in her ear, close enough that Lena could feel her smile. 

Lena just snorted and burrowed in further, happy with the knowledge that maybe sometimes (but only sometimes), Kara was right, and she was wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wanted to convey the little awkward parts of two people's first time together. smut is not the strongest aspect of my writing but its still fun to write these two getting it on regardless


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a little bit of a dialogue heavy/filler chapter to get us going to the next phase but it's nice to break up the angst a little sometimes 
> 
> find me on tumblr @urwelcomeforthis

The sound of Kara’s automatic coffee maker jarred Lena out of a deep sleep sometime mid-morning. 

For a moment she was confused as to where she was, but recognition slowly seeped into her bones as she felt the strong arms that held her close. 

She didn’t dare move – too afraid that somehow, someway, she would move and wake up alone in her own silk sheets back in her apartment, but when she felt soft lips press against the top of her head, she knew it wasn’t a dream. 

“Mmm. G’morning.” Kara mumbled as she tightened her hold around Lena’s bare back. 

“Good morning.” Lena replied as she tried and failed to suppress a smile. 

This was not something she was used to having – waking up in the arms of someone she had spent the evening with sexually. Usually her relationships had a vivid and clear demarcation line, but she and Kara had blown over it both physically and emotionally in a single evening. 

“What are you thinking about?” Kara began tracing her fingers slowly up and down Lena’s back, her voice still thick with sleep. 

“You have excellent definition in your biceps and triceps.” She deflected, not quite ready to delve back into the emotional waters they had tread together the night before. 

Kara snorted above her. 

“Well thanks. You’ve got great…. back muscles?” Kara offered with a lilt as she placed her open palms on the expanse of Lena’s back. 

Lena couldn’t help it, she laughed. 

“Wanna know what I’m thinking?” Kara asked after Lena’s giggling died down. 

Lena lifted herself up off of Kara’s chest and propped herself on an elbow, looking down at Kara’s relaxed face. 

“Yes. Always.” She said as she moved to brush some of the blonde curls out off of Kara’s neck. 

“I thought this might be awkward, but it isn’t. It just kinda feels right.” Kara was giving her that new smile again, complete with crinkles around her eyes, and Lena’s heart stuttered in her chest. 

Lena hummed as she leaned forward and placed a single chaste kiss on Kara’s lips. “It’s been a long time since I woke up next to someone else, but I slept much more soundly than I have in quite some time. It does feel right.” 

Kara grinned back up at her and was in the motion of leaning forward for what Lena was sure were to be much more pulse racing kisses, when the sound of her phone going off interrupted. 

Kara groaned dramatically before she flopped back onto the pillows, releasing Lena from her grip. She leaned over, grasping for the nightstand and bringing the phone she found to her ear. 

“What?” She barked and Lena smirked to herself – Kara did not like being interrupted she took note. 

“Yeah, ok. Thanks Sawyer.” She said after a few moments before hanging up the phone and fully sitting up. 

Lena watched from where she lay on her stomach as the sheets slid off of Kara’s fully nude body, an appreciative flush rising to her cheeks. 

Kara stood up and cast a glance back at her, a smirk on her face. “Enjoying the view?” 

Lena snorted before she buried her face in the pillows for a moment. 

She pulled herself up and let the sheet fall to the wayside, smugly watching as Kara’s face morphed into something else entirely. “Yes. I must say, I find your lack of puritan modesty refreshing.” 

She stood and walked towards the bathroom for a shower, leaving a clearly dumbfounded Kara standing behind her, spluttering. 

When she reached the door, she placed a hand on the door frame, pausing to turn and glance at the woman behind her. 

“Coming?” She asked with an eyebrow raised, holding in a laugh when Kara snapped back to life and rushed after her. 

\------

“So, Maggie said that we may have some trouble getting in to see Mercy Graves.” Kara said as she chewed her food.

They were sat at the kitchen table sometime after their shower eating eggs that Kara had made. Lena watched Kara talk as the food rolled around in her mouth, a look of disgust on her face. 

“Wha?” Kara asked when she glanced up and noticed the way Lena was watching her. 

She shook her head once and tried to concentrate on anything other than the piece of egg hanging from the corner of Kara’s mouth. “Nothing. As for our Mercy Graves problem, I don’t think we’ll have an issue getting in to see her.” 

Kara swallowed and wiped her mouth with a napkin to Lena’s deep relief. “Ok… care to fill me in?” 

“Otis Graves and my brother have been friends for at least twenty-five years. They went to boarding school together, and Otis to my recollection, was always incredibly close with Mercy. I’ve known her since I was a child. We were…. close when I was in my first year at Harvard.” She took a sip of her coffee and watched Kara’s eyes widen.

“Oh. And you think she’ll what, want to reconnect?” 

“Yes.” Lena said succinctly, not wanting to broach the topic further. 

Kara studied her for a long moment before a slow winding smile overtook her face. 

“Oh my god. Like she wants to _reconnect_ reconnect.” Kara waggled her eyebrows and Lena scowled. 

“I don’t know what it is that you’re implying.” She stood and carried her dishes over to the sink, pointedly ignoring Kara who stood and came to join her. 

“Lena Luthor you’re holding out on me! Just admit it – you got it on with your brother’s hot older friend!” Kara poked her in the ribs and Lena tried (and failed) to not blush. 

She sighed and turned to face Kara; arms crossed over her chest. “I would think you would be more jealous. Or at the very least less amused by the information.” 

“Why because you and I are together now?” Kara asked as she reached out and pulled Lena’s stiff body into her own. “Nah. Whatever teenage or young adult Lena got up to happened way before you even knew me. I had people too, but that’s before I knew you.” 

“I know that, I just don’t like being teased.” Lena mumbled from where she was pressed into the shoulder of Kara’s shirt. 

“Ok, ok no more teasing – about this.” Kara gave in easily, placing a kiss on Lena’s forehead. 

They parted and made their way to the door, needing to get on their way to question Mercy.

“Speaking of teasing – do you maybe want to keep this new development between just us for a little while?” Kara asked as she began the process of putting the leather holsters and guns on her shoulders and hip. 

Lena waited; eyebrows furrowed; Kara’s suit jacked held open in her arms. “Why?” 

Kara let Lena help her into her jacket and turned to face her. “Not because I’m ashamed or think it’s a secret. I just know how you like to take your time with big emotional things, and maybe don’t want to deal with Sam or Nia teasing you about it every time you and I so much as blink at each other.” 

Lena cocked her head to the side and smiled. “Oh. Yes. That’s very kind of you to offer, and I would appreciate it.” 

Kara leaned forward and kissed her once, slowly, her hands-on Lena’s hips. She pulled back and kissed the tip of her nose. “Trust me, once you’re ready I’ll be shouting it from the roof tops, but for now, I’m ok if it’s just ours.” 

Lena leaned back and straightened out Kara’s tie, smiling to herself at the little whales that adorned it. “Thank you.” 

Kara just smiled, taking Lena’s hand and pulling her out of the door. 

\-------

“Force Projection. Not subtle about what their end game is here, are they?” Kara mumbled as they sat in the lobby of Mercy Graves’s office on the second to top floor of the large building.

It was cold and impersonal – not a plant or decoration adorning the waiting space, and the secretary sat typing away, ignoring them both as they waited to be let in the large modern doors in front of them. 

“You would think given your past service; you would be less bothered by being at a defense contractors office.” Lena said, not bothering to keep her voice down. 

Kara’s eyes darted towards the secretary who had momentarily stopped typing, leaning in towards Lena. “It’s because of my service I’m bothered. Force Projection sent us over with defective body armor. A lot of people died because they sold it off as good product.” 

Lena, taking note of Kara’s lowered voice and posture, did her best to copy her partner. “Will you be able to remain calm in this meeting?” 

Kara scoffed, leaning back in her seat, slouching down. “I’ll be fine, no worries.” 

Lena was going to say something more – about how Kara’s body posture and overall tone indicated the opposite, when the doors opened, and Mercy Graves stepped out into the lobby. 

Kara tensed next to her, taking in the graceful and stunning woman who was now standing before them. 

“Dr. Luthor, Agent Danvers, please come in.” Graves said with a hand held out pointing towards her office. She walked in as Lena and Kara stood to follow her. 

“You never said she looked like _that_.” Kara hissed as they made their way across the lobby. 

“What? All of my partners have been exceptionally attractive. I don’t know how that matters.” Lena whispered back watching as Kara’s mouth dropped open. 

“Well I’m definitely jealous now.” Kara groused as she walked in behind Lena, closing the door behind them. 

Mercy was leaned against her desk as they walked in and broke into a reserved smile upon the click of the door. 

“Lena, dear, it’s wonderful to see you.” She said as she came forward and placed two air kisses on Lena’s cheeks. 

“You as well, Mercy. Allow me to introduce you to my partner, Special Agent Kara Danvers.” Lena said upon returning the gesture. 

Kara regained her composure enough to nod stiffly at Mercy. “Ms. Graves, we’re here to ask you if you know anything about the disappearance of your brother, Otis Graves.” 

Mercy’s smile dropped off her face as she turned to walk behind her desk. Sitting down, she indicated Lena and Kara should do the same, and frowned. 

“No, I’m afraid I didn’t even know he was missing.” She said as she crossed one long leg over the other. 

“Yeah see, we’ve got records that indicate you paid the rent he’s owed since he went missing three weeks ago. Yesterday, in fact.” Kara said as she leaned back in her chair, bringing an ankle up to cross over her knee. 

“Yes. His landlord reached out to me. She informed me that Otis owed rent and hadn’t been paying. He hasn’t always been incredibly reliable.” Mercy was cool in her response as she ran a hand through her hair. 

“Right. So, you paid his rent and didn’t question why he hadn’t reached out to you himself?” Kara asked as she thumbed through the file she had brought in with her. 

“No, I’m afraid Otis and I are not as close as we once were. I merely did what I’ve always done and cleaned up his mess.” Mercy uncrossed her legs and stood, walking over to a drink cart sitting in the corner. 

“Drink? I seem to remember you have a particular taste for whiskey, Lena. Among other things.” She asked as she held up what looked like an expensive glass decanter, an eyebrow raised and a smirk on her lips. 

“She’s fine.” Kara said through gritted teeth. 

Lena shot an unamused look at Kara for the clear possessiveness in her tone but shook her head. “No thank you, I prefer to not drink during working hours.” 

“Ah, well more for me then.” Mercy said as her eyes darted between the two women seated before her. 

She poured herself a healthy glass of amber liquid, before slowly walking back towards her chair. 

“Like I said, Otis and I are no longer as close as we were in our youth. But I have full faith in the FBI to locate him. The partnership between my company and the bureau is one of great importance to both parties, I assure you.” She took a long drink from her glass, allowing her thinly veiled threat to hang in the air. 

Lena could feel Kara practically chewing over the clear bait that had been laid out before them, her jaw tense and a cold look in her blue eyes. 

“Yes, who wouldn’t treasure a partnership with Force Projection?” Kara sat up straight, meeting the challenge head on, distaste rolling off her in waves. 

Mercy paused for a moment; eyes hard. “Yes. Well, if that’s all?” 

“No, actually it’s not, Ms. Graves.” Kara said as she stood up, withdrawing a paper from her folder. Walking forward she slapped it down on the desk in front of Mercy, a finger pointed at the top line. 

“You see, I’ve talked to Otis’s landlord. She didn’t contact you to pay the rent. And as this log indicates, you and your brother talked on the phone, often.” 

Lena watched as Mercy’s nostrils flared, her gaze defiant as she glanced up at Kara. 

“Talking on the phone does not, in itself, indicate closeness, Agent Danvers. And I was contacted by the landlord, I can hardly be faulted for another’s lies.” 

“Nah, you see, I don’t buy that. You didn’t _just_ pay your brother’s overdue rent. There’s a deposit in his account over three weeks ago of $20,000. From you.” Kara leaned in close towards Mercy, her tone menacing and low as her finger jabbed the paper again. 

It sent a tendril of excitement up Lena’s spine. It was always incredible to her, how differently Kara handled suspects in interrogations or questioning. She was kind and understanding with some, or direct and threatening with others, as she was being with Mercy. It usually meant she knew something Lena didn’t. 

“A sister can’t take care of her estranged brother? I did send him the money. He said he needed it to pay off medical debts.” Mercy stated as she imperceptible shrank under Kara. 

“Oh, and you were just playing the part of a caring sister?” Kara asked as she leaned back, not completely vacating Mercy’s space. 

“Yes, of course. I love my brother.” Mercy said as a smarmy grin overtook her features, thinking she had won this round. 

“You know, I get that. I love my sister.” Kara said as she placed her hands on her hips, her jacket pulled back to reveal her gun with the gesture. “I’d do almost anything for her. Emphasis on the _almost_. But giving her 20 grand to help her, say, drop off the map and join her psychopath best friend on a murder spree? I’m not that deranged.” 

Mercy’s eyes flicked to Kara’s gun for a moment before she cleared her throat. She placed her glass down on the desk before she stood and walked to the door. 

“Unless you’re going to arrest me based on pure conjecture, which is what that absurd theory of yours is, I would ask that you leave, Agent Danvers.” She yanked the door open and glared at the agent. 

“Don’t tempt me, Ms. Graves.” Kara said as she took a solid step forward, coming to stand between Lena and the woman at the door. 

“She’ll do it, Mercy. She doesn’t like you very much.” Lena offered from her seat as she peered around Kara’s body. 

“Well. In that case, I think you should leave so I don’t temp you any further. Please don’t make me call security. Or your superiors.” Mercy stated with a raised eyebrow as she continued to hold the door ajar. 

Kara stared her down for a long moment before she snatched the paper from the desk and grabbed her folder. Lena stood to follow her out the door, not bothering to spare Mercy a second glance. 

\--------

Kara was silent in the car ride, obviously still worked up over the hostile questioning that had just taken place. 

Lena, for her part, was feeling fairly put off still by Kara’s quick reaction to Mercy’s flirtation at the drink cart. 

She sighed once, loudly, hoping to draw Kara out of her stewing. 

“I cannot believe you dated that woman.” Kara broke the silence and Lena shot her an exasperated look. 

“I never said I dated her. We merely slept together several times.” 

Kara ground her teeth. “Oh, sure. Just some casual sex with a devil in heels.” 

“While I understand intellectually that jealousy is absurd, I have experienced it myself, and am therefore willing to forgive your possessive behavior in Mercy’s office earlier. However, I won’t be judged for my sexual history. _That_ is something you have no right to be angry with me for, as you said yourself this morning.” Lena fumed as she watched Kara’s jaw slowly loosen. 

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” Kara said with a deep sigh. “This case is personal. That woman most likely knew exactly what her brother was up to, helped fund it, and now her brother is out there, trying to gun you down. Which he almost did last night.” 

She pulled the car into a parking space outside the diner they often frequented for lunch, and turned towards Lena, placing a hand on her thigh. 

“I’m sorry. For being possessive. I can be protective of the things I care about. Not in a possessive way, necessarily, but more like I feel a need to protect you. I don’t know what that woman was like when you had your sexcapades all those years ago, but she is not a good person now. I don’t like that she ever knew even a single part of you.” 

Lena sucked on her teeth for a long moment, before carefully taking Kara’s hand in her own. 

“The truth is, she was never a particularly great person, but it took me some time to figure that out. She was there for me, when Lex began to display the first indications that something was wrong. Growing up he had displayed many of the markers of sociopathy – narcissism, social awkwardness, inappropriate fantasies, and a fair dose of oedipal neuroses.” 

She flipped Kara’s hand in her own and began to trace the lines in her palm. “But he was still my brother, so I was blind to it all. He had begun to try and pressure me to change my research course from anthropology, claiming my time would be better spend working in engineering so I could come to Luthor Corp and help create weapons. Mercy was an ear and a shoulder to lean on.” 

She glanced up at Kara then, and watched as her girlfriend slowly leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek. 

“I can understand that.” She said when she pulled back from Lena, blue eyes trained on her face. “I’m really sorry for acting like an ass. I won’t do it again.” 

Lena squeezed her hand and nodded. “Thank you. I accept your apology.” 

They exited the car and made their way into the diner, taking a seat at their normal table. Kara ordered an inordinate amount of food, while Lena opted for a salad and tea. 

“I like this, you know. How honest you just were with me back there. How we talked through things.” Kara told her as she fiddled with the silverware in front of her, unraveling the paper napkin holding it together. 

“Well if we want a healthy monogamous relationship, we need to be forthright and honest.” Lena shrugged as she began to cut into her chicken. 

“That’s very rational. And smart.” Kara agreed with an amused smile on her lips, getting ready to dig into her lunch when her phone rang. 

“Oh, come on.” She groaned as she placed the phone up to her ear. 

“Really? Can it wait for like ten minutes? I just got lunch.” She complained to whoever has placed the call, and Lena’s lips twitched in amusement as she chewed her food. 

“Yeah, yeah we’re on our way.” Kara grumbled as she looked down longingly at her food. 

“Are we needed back at the lab?” Lena questioned as Kara began to try to fit an impressive number of fries into her mouth. 

“No. There’s a body. You gotta go do your thing.” She said around the food in her mouth causing Lena to sigh. 

She didn’t want to change anything about Kara. 

Except maybe her atrocious eating habits. 

“Get a To-Go Box. I’ll drive and you can eat – but only if you keep your mouth closed while it has food in it.” She said as she raised a hand to flag down their waiter. 

Kara at least had the decency to blush as she snapped her mouth shut.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a warning that there is a description of a mutilated body in this chapter (not too gory - it's in line with the violence you see in bones) 
> 
> this chapter is slightly slower moving but we are getting going with more murder and intrigue and some more sam/lena time which i personally adore 
> 
> fine me on tumblr @urwelcomeforthis

“Just pull in there.” Kara pointed to a patch of gravel in front of a marker that indicated the opening to a trail. They were at a park they had been directed to, deep in the woods near a service road. 

Lena carefully parked the car near other law enforcement vehicles as Kara bundled up her To-Go foods before wiping her hands off on the legs of her pants. 

Lena raised an eyebrow at the action and had to suppress a smirk when Kara sighed deeply and picked up a napkin instead.

“Happy?” Kara asked as she crumpled up the used napkin and tossed it into the bag of garbage. 

“Thrilled.” Lena responded with a laugh, noticing when she opened her door that Kara had a smile on her face.

They stepped out of the car and Lena handed back the keys to Kara as they made their way over to the park police officer standing at the entrance of the trail, waiting for their arrival. 

“Special Agent Danvers?” The woman asked as they approached and Kara fished out her badge, flashing it for a moment before she nodded. 

“Yep and this is my partner Dr. Lena Luthor of the Washingtonian. I’m guessing you’re Officer Cameron? Can you tell me what’s going on?” Kara asked as she pocketed her badge and pulled out her notepad. 

“Yes, if you’ll follow me this way, I can show you where the body was found.” The officer turned and led them down the gravel trail as she began to tell Kara the information she needed to know. 

“A couple of mountain bikers were taking a ride when they decided to go off trail.” The woman began as they turned off the path and headed deeper into the heavily wooded area. 

“They were riding and as far as we can tell, they interrupted whoever was disposing of the body. They were deep in the woods to be this close to the service road, and the person who dumped the body cut down the chain that was meant to keep cars out.” The officer spoke as they continued to pick their way through the foliage before coming to an area humming with activity. 

Off to the side behind where police tape had been wound around a few trees stood two men in biking attire. They were being questioned by a few officers, while the Washingtonian and FBI forensic agents combed the crime scene. 

“Fair warning on those two – they’re blazed as all get out.” The officer told Kara as they walked towards where the bikers were shifting on their feet, looking obviously nervous. 

“Ok, thanks for the heads up, we can take it from here.” Kara told the woman as they came to stand a few feet away. 

Kara took a moment to jot down some notes before she turned to where Lena was patiently waiting. 

“Alright so let’s question Cheech and Chong and then we can get going on the body. Sound good?” She asked as she held up the police tape for Lena to cross under. 

“Who are Cheech and Chong?” Lena questioned as she ducked under the tape, Kara following quickly behind her. 

“You know, the biker dudes.” Kara nodded in the direction of the Lycan clad men. 

“Officer Cameron didn’t mention their names. Do you know them, personally?” Lena asked as they came to stand near the two bikers. 

Kara huffed. “No, I don’t know them, Cheech and Chong are famous stoners that’s all.” 

“Oh, you were making a joke. I see.” Lena nodded as both men began to warily eye Kara and the badge Lena noted she had hung open obviously from her waistband. 

“Yep, and now Cheech and Chong here are going to tell me what happened as best they remember it.” Kara said as she placed her hands on her hips, an eyebrow raised. 

“Hey man, we didn’t break any laws. Weed is legal here.” The biker in blue started in defensively but stopped when Kara held up a hand. 

“Yeah not that it matters, with the dead body behind us and all, but it’s not legal to smoke it on public property and technically you’re on federal land right now dumbass.” She said with a snort and pulled her sunglasses down just enough, so her eyes were visible and threatening. 

“Now, tell me what happened.” 

The biker in yellow pointed to the area where the most agents were concentrated behind them, obviously where the body had been placed. 

“We were riding off trail, when we heard the sound of someone grunting, so we shifted course to see what was going on. They must have heard us coming, because they ran as we were riding up, and we saw that blue lump laying there. A hand was visible, so we ran up to see if the person was alive, but they weren’t.” He looked nauseas at the information he relayed, and Lena’s eyebrow furrowed. 

“Were there any visible wounds or decay on the hand?” She asked as she tried to peer around the mass of agents working in the area. She could just make out the edge of a blue plastic tarp and was more than ready to get to work. 

“Um no, but it was just gross, you’ll see. And like that dude was probably a murderer and we had the bad luck to ride right up on him.” The man continued with a shudder and Kara sighed as she took in the man in blue.

“Did you hear or see anything else?” She asked, her pen poised above white notebook sheets. 

“Yeah, we could hear a car take off after he ran and then we called the cops.” He shrugged, visibly less affected at the turn his day had taken than his friend. Lena took in his reddened eyes and concluded that he was most likely much more inebriated than his companion. 

“Alright well, if you remember anything else, call the contact the other agent gave you and if we need you for questioning come in sober, you got it?” Kara asked with a leveled gaze at both men who nodded fervently. 

They turned and made their way back towards the body, as Lena began to pull on a pair of latex gloves she had fished out of her bag. 

“I’ll need soil samples of the area under the tarp in case any fluids leached out into the ground.” She began as Nia walked up the join them, having arrived at the scene before they did. 

“No leaching. The body is fairly fresh all things considered.” She told Lena who nodded, taking in the tarped body that she realized Nia must have demanded remain covered until Lena herself showed up. 

“We should still take some as a precaution, Dr. Dox may find something useful.” Lena said as she crouched down and began to carefully peel back the tarp. 

The first thing she noticed was that the body was fully nude, no bone visible. 

Disturbingly, while the woman’s face was facing up, the rest of her body was turned onto her stomach, her back in place of where the chest should be.

Lena took in the stitch marks present on the victim’s neck, indicating she had been decapitated and her head reattached backwards. She allowed her eyes to trace down the stich marks to the limbs, where she noted they had been taken off and reattached surgically, the same careful stitching present. 

She tried to not let her mind wander to the man whose hand she knew was steady enough to create such meticulous work when her eyes refocused on the face, and she felt the air leave her lungs. 

“I now realize we should have probably called in Dr. Danvers on this one. There’s way too much flesh for Dr. Luthor to work with. And frankly I could have gone without seeing this.” She heard Nia say to Kara above where she stayed crouched, her eyes glued to the face of the blonde-haired woman laying before her. 

“Kara?” She choked out the agent’s name, feeling her knees begin to shake. 

She wasn’t sure if it was because of the position she was in, or the face staring blankly back at her. 

“What’s up?” Kara asked as she came to crouch down besides Lena, her eyes etched with concern as she took in Lena’s ashen features. 

“I know who this is.” She said as she leaned forward slightly, her elbows perched on her knees. 

“Fuck. This is another creepy Lex one isn’t it?” Kara mumbled as she fished out her phone and began to send a text, Lena assumed to Sawyer. 

“Yes. This is Eve Teschmacher.” Lena informed her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them and turning to Kara. 

“We need to get her back to the lab. If this is like the last time, there is a message from Lex that we are missing most likely because the bikers interrupted the staging of the victim’s remains.” She said as she stood up and briskly walked away from where Eve lay on the blue tarp, pulling her gloves off as she went. 

“Nia get on it.” Kara barked out as she jogged to catch up to Lena, easily joining by her side as they made their way back towards the path. 

Lena felt a hand lightly brush at her elbow and turned to face Kara, coming to an abrupt stop. 

“Hey. I know this is bad. But he got interrupted right? So maybe we’ll have some more evidence to go off of this time.” Kara offered as she let her hand more firmly grip Lena’s arm. 

“Perhaps. Or he’ll be enraged at the interruption of the ritual from which he derives gratification, making him that much more dangerous.” Lena said as she cast a glance to where Nia was directing a team to place the bagged body on a stretcher to be brought to the lab. 

“Yeah well there’s also that much less optimistic part, sure.” Kara sighed as she fished the car keys out of her pants pocket and began to gently direct Lena back in the direction from where they had entered into the woods. 

“She was under federal protection Kara; she had an entirely different identity. She was supposed to be safe.” Lena said as they walked, allowing Kara to place an arm around her shoulders and hold her closer than she would normally allow at a crime scene. 

“I know. Trust me I know – I texted Maggie to say pretty much the same exact thing. He shouldn’t have been able to get to her, and since he did it means that someone gave Eve up.” Kara released her when they reached the car, holding the door open for Lena to climb inside the SUV. 

“That must bother you.” Lena said as Kara began to buckle herself into her own seat. 

“Yeah it does. It means there’s a rat either in the Marshalls or the FBI and it pisses me off.” Kara placed her arm behind the headrest of Lena’s seat, looking over her shoulder as she began to back out and turn onto the main road. 

“What does that mean for me?” Lena asked, trying to ignore the rapid beat of her heart as she realized she was the only one left on Lex’s list of revenge. 

“What? It doesn’t mean anything. I’ve kept you alive so far haven’t I?” Kara asked as she quickly took her eyes off the road to shoot Lena an incredulous look. 

Lena clenched her jaw. “Kara, you said there were more U.S. Marshalls added to Eve’s detail to keep her safe and he _still_ got to her. It’s not safe to be around me anymore!” 

“Lena, we are not having this argument again. I know he got to her, but didn’t you hear what I said? There’s gotta be someone working for Lex on the inside. If there is, then he knows you have a personal detail headed by me. I’ll let Lex get to you over my dead body.” Kara told her, taking her hand off the steering wheel to grasp Lena’s hand in her own. 

Lena sighed and leaned back into her seat, closing her eyes. 

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.” She whispered under her breath as they continued their drive towards the lab. 

\--------

Lena and Kara walked into Lena’s office at the Washingtonian lab only to find Sam and Alex lounging easily on the couches in the sitting area. 

Alex was laid, her head in Sam’s lap as Sam rifled through some paperwork, feet up on the glass table in front of her. 

“Well y’all are real comfortable, aren’t you?” Kara snorted as she walked a still shaken Lena over to her desk. 

Alex jumped up from her spot, eyes wild as she took in Kara and Lena. When she realized it was just them, she relaxed and laid back down. “Yeah, everyone knows Lena has the good couches.” 

“I don’t mind, Kara.” Lena mumbled as she sat down behind her desk and brought her hands up to rub at her temples. 

Without thinking, Kara stood behind her, hands coming down around her shoulders in order to help relieve some of the tension that permanently lived there. 

“That feels good.” Lena sank into the strong thumbs working the knots in her shoulders near her neck, letting her eyes fall shut. 

Sam watched them with interest, tapping Alex on the forehead and gesturing with a finger towards where the two other women stood, lost in their own world. 

Alex snorted and rolled her eyes before settling back down. Sam shut the folder in her grasp and loudly cleared her throat. 

Kara jumped back slightly, much to Lena’s dissatisfaction, which she voiced with a groan. 

“So, how was the rest of your night?” Sam asked as her eyes danced, darting between a red-faced Kara and an obviously exasperated Lena. 

“Fine, Kara made pancakes.” Lena offered in an even voice, Kara nodding enthusiastically behind her. 

Sam’s eyes narrowed in on Lena, who had stiffened in her seat under the gaze of her best friend. 

“Oh? And how were…. Kara’s pancakes?” Sam asked. Alex gagged slightly, the sound voicing her clear displeasure with Sam’s innuendo. 

Lena relaxed slightly and smiled up at Kara. “They were more than adequate. She put some bananas in them, which I had not tried before last night.” 

Sam suddenly began coughing, in a vain effort to cover the sound of startled laughter, while Kara turned, if possible, even more red. 

“Yep they were good pancakes, glad you liked them.” Kara said much too enthusiastically as she spared Sam a glare. “Anyways, in much more important news, the body on its way is another Lex specialty, and it’s going to need to be autopsied before Lena can get to the bones, so looks like you’re up Alex.” 

Alex sat up and rubbed her eyes, sighing deeply. “Yeah Nia called and let us know. Apparently, it’s been experimented on or something? She wasn’t really clear, just said it was and I quote ‘freaky’.” She used her fingers in air quotes around Nia’s apt description of the victim’s remains as she stretched her neck. 

“Yeah that’s one way to describe it. Did she also mention that Lena positively ID’d the remains as Eve Teschmacher?” Kara brought her hand up to loosen her tie from around her neck, eyes glancing down at Lena to check in and make sure she was still doing ok. 

Lena chewed on her lip, her brow furrowed deep in thought or concern, Kara couldn’t tell. 

Alex’s eyes tracked between the two of them, catching an elbow in the ribs from Sam who looked at her meaningfully.

She nodded once at her wife, before standing up abruptly. “No, she left that fact out. But before they get here, Kar, could you come with me to my office? I’ve got something heavy I’ve got to move before we bring a full body in.” 

Kara shrugged, placing a hand on Lena’s shoulder for a brief moment before turning to follow her sister out of the office and into the lab’s main area. 

“So.” Sam said as she stood and came to lean against Lena’s desk, hand coming down to grab one of the knick knacks Kara had placed there, claiming Lena’s office needed more personality. 

“So?” Lena asked, eyebrow raised as she opened the file on her computer pertaining to the cases linked to Lex. 

“Pancakes. That’s all that happened last night?” Sam asked meaningfully, pressing down on the top of the Wonder Woman bobblehead, watching as it jiggled rapidly when she released. 

“Samantha you know I don’t do well with innuendo or veiled meaning. If you have something to ask, simply ask it.” Lena snapped slightly as she continued to read through the reports on the bones of Senator Wilbur. 

Sam sighed deeply, setting down the bobblehead, before she nudged Lena with her knee. 

“I’m asking you if anything else happened between you and Kara sweetie. There was some noticeable tension last night when you both came in.” 

Lena glanced up at Sam, jaw clenched as she worked to keep her heart rate low and the flush off of her cheeks as the sight of Kara, head tipped back in ecstasy flashed in her mind’s eye. 

“Of course there was tension. We had been shot at.” She tried to refocus on the computer screen in front of her, working hard to keep Sam from reading her as she often did. 

“Yeah but the two of you are like a pile of highly flammable kindling just waiting for a single match to light on fire.” Sam said with a roll of her eyes, doggedly refusing to let the conversation move on. 

Lena knew she wouldn’t be able to keep Sam off of the trail, no matter how hard she tried, despite what she and Kara had agreed that morning. She was still determined to try, however, when she heard Sam sigh deeply. 

“You know Alex is working on needling it out of Kara right now at this very moment, right? You might as well tell me. If you’re comfortable that is.” 

Lena knew Sam was right. She also knew that if there was one person in the world that Kara was wholly incapable of keeping something from, it was her sister. 

She also found that she wanted to share with Sam what had happened. It was rare that she was excited about a development in her life that had nothing to do with work, and she had found that it was important in friendships to share the bigger moments. 

She made a decision and nodded once to herself. 

Standing on slightly shaky legs she stepped around Sam, going to her office door. She took a moment before taking in a deep breath and reaching forward to close it, offering more privacy and shutting out the main lab from the unfolding conversation. 

She turned back to look at Sam, who stood gape mouthed, her eyebrows near her hairline. 

“Holy _shit_ something did happen!” Sam squealed and Lena found she could no longer keep the blush off of her cheeks as she nodded. 

Sam shot off the desk and grabbed Lena by the arm, dragging her to the couch. 

“Details, babe, I need details. Kara seems like she is wound tight which usually means they’re dynamic in bed, or at least that’s the truth with the other Danvers.” Sam said as she leaned in towards Lena. 

Lena cleared her throat slightly, placing her hands in her lap, her fingers tangled together. “I’m sure she is. I mean she was dynamic, and it was very good. But it was much sweeter and more tender than strictly passionate.” 

Her cheeks were flaming red and she was looking anywhere but at Sam, who seemed to sense that she didn’t want to be subjected to the normal banter Sam employed when it came to the subject that was Kara. 

She felt a warm hand come to clasp her tightly knitted fist, and swallowed once before allowing herself to face Sam. 

She found that her best friend’s face had lost its jovial quality, replaced instead with something more akin to compassion. 

“Well that’s probably because it was more than just a one-time thing, sweetie. Maybe instead of kindling ready to light, it’s more of a slow burn between you two, something more important.” 

Lena nodded. “She did very clearly indicate that it was much more to her than a one-time experience. That it felt right. I think it did too.” 

Sam smiled, pulling a surprised Lena into a hug. 

When she pulled back, the smile stayed on her face, and Lena found herself returning it shyly. 

“Good. I’m glad, and just so you know, if she ever does anything stupid to hurt you, I’ll kick her ass.” Sam said and Lena laughed. 

“She’s a trained special forces soldier and sniper Sam, I’m fairly certain that would not be an even fight.” 

Sam just shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, I’ll still whoop her ass.” 

Lena smiled, a full wide one, letting herself sink into the moment and relief at telling her friend about what had happened between herself and Kara. 

“Thank you. And please don’t tell anyone. We agreed we wanted to keep it between ourselves for a while. With everything going on I’m not sure I could handle Nia or Alex’s reactions.” 

Sam snorted. “Yeah good call. I promise, my lips are sealed. But once this is all solved and behind us, you two owe me and Alex a double date.” 

Lena frowned at that. 

“Only if you promise Alex will behave.” 

Sam’s loud laughter in response rang out across the lab, despite the closed office doors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not anti weed but I figured a FBI officer wouldn't be thrilled lol


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! wanted to get this out before my two weeks of finals began - i'll still try to update but forgive me if it takes longer. 
> 
> warning for descriptions of past violence/work with remains 
> 
> also thank you so much for the reviews - they're wonderful and i appreciate them 
> 
> find me on tumblr @urwelcomeforthis

Kara walked into Alex’s office and glanced around, looking for whatever it was she needed help with. 

She whirled around when she heard the door click shut, and watched as Alex wandered over towards her desk, yanking open a drawer. 

“Alright where is this thing you so desperately need moved?” Kara questioned suspiciously as she watched her sister pull out two paper cups and a hidden bottle of whiskey instead. 

“Yeah, there’s no thing, Sam just wanted to talk to Lena, and I figured that meant I needed to talk to you.” Alex poured a small amount into each cup, not enough to make either of them fuzzy headed, and handed one to Kara. 

“Ok, about what exactly?” She asked as she glanced down at the liquid in her cup, bringing it up to sniff. 

When she decided it was good enough smelling stuff, she took a small sip, and looked at Alex expectantly. 

“About how cozy the two of you looked last night. And there just now, in her office.” Alex said as she plopped down into her rolling chair, feet up on her desk. 

“Well yeah, we’re spending a lot of time together working this case.” Kara said with a shrug of her shoulders, leaning back on the autopsy table behind her, eyes wary as she took in her sister. 

“Yeah, ok. But listen Kara, I know how you feel about her, and she doesn’t have anyone else to say this for her, so here goes.” Alex drained her drink quickly before she took her feet off the desk and leaned forward, a serious look on her face. 

“If you go for it with her, you can’t change your mind. You need to be sure, because if you’re not and you back out, or you sleep with her and want to just put it behind you, she’ll die of loneliness before she ever trusts anyone ever again. She seems all hard and ice queeny but she’s really made of mush on the inside. Or that’s what Sam said, anyways.” 

“I know all of that Alex.” Kara could hear how defensive she was being, but she didn’t care. She followed Alex’s lead and drained her paper cup, balling it up and shooting it into the trash can in the corner just to give herself something to do. 

“Do you? I know you feel things strongly and you’re obviously attracted to her, which no one can blame you for, but if it’s just some passing fancy-” Alex began, only to be interrupted by Kara breaking in. 

“We slept together. Last night.” Kara admitted nervously, wishing she still had that drink and that Alex had poured her more. She shifted on her feet, eyes on the ground. 

“You _what_?” Alex yelped out as she took in the information and Kara sighed. 

“We slept together. At my place. And it’s not a passing fancy, Alex. I – remember, how you knew Sam was gonna be it for you, like the moment she came to work here?” 

Alex watched as Kara gesticulated with her hands, eyes following the rapid movements. “Yes, but-“ 

“No. No buts. I knew that day I came to pick her up and she was making a spectacle of us both. She demanded to be let into the field, and I told her no, but I already knew I would find a way. And we both know I like to break rules every once in a while, but that was a big ask and I was determined to make it work to make her happy.” Kara began to pace, her mind flooded with memories of how obstinate Lena had been that day all those months ago, a small smile finding its way to her lips. 

“Anyways, I was sitting there in the car, and she did that stomping thing she does when she’s really angry, and it’s like my whole world shifted out from underneath my feet, you know?” She came to stand in front of Alex, finding her eyes with her own, hoping to convey how serious she was about Lena to her sister. 

“So no, it’s not a passing fancy. It’s more like the beginning of the end – but like in a good way. Like the happy kind of end.” She shrugged as she took in Alex’s rapidly widening eyes. 

Alex sat silently for a moment before reaching back behind her and refilling her paper cup, immediately taking a sip. “Wow.” She said after a long moment, still staring in shock at her sister. 

“What? Why are you staring at me like that?” Kara asked with the whine she only affected around her older sister. 

“You’re like stupid in love, aren’t you? And kind of eloquent when you want to be.” 

Kara rolled her eyes but shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah I guess.” She reached out and made a grabby hands gesture towards her sister, indicating she wanted the bottle. 

She took a long sip from it when Alex acquiesced, before capping it and walking it back to the drawer in which it lived. 

“I didn’t know you had it in you champ.” Alex got up and grabbed Kara, pulling her in with her arm before she clamped it around her neck, effectively putting Kara in a headlock. 

“Let go of me you ass!” Kara yelled as she began to struggle against her sister, the scuffle having the potential to devolve into a full-blown fight had Nia not walked in a moment later. 

“Uh guys?” Nia asked, causing both Kara and Alex to look up, Kara’s head still locked in Alex’s arms. 

They separated quickly, Kara brushing down the front of her shirt for any wrinkles caused by her sister before she turned and gave Nia her attention. 

“Is the body here?” 

“Yep. They’re getting it ready out in the lab.” Nia told her, an amused smile on her lips as she began to back her way out of the office, leaving Kara and Alex to follow.

“The lab? I thought you said Alex needed first crack at it since it’s still all meaty and stuff.” Kara said as they made their way up the platform steps where the techs were setting down the tarped remains. 

“Yeah well when we were loading it up, we saw something that we figured needed to be catalogued before Alex cut the victim open and the flesh was removed.” Nia answered over her shoulder as she took her place next to Lena who was carefully instructing the techs on how to remove the tarp and retain evidence. 

Sam was standing off to the side watching as Eve’s body was slowly revealed, a disgusted look on her face as she took in the inhuman way her head was facing. 

“This job is seriously terrible sometimes.” She said with a scrunch of her nose. 

“We need them to turn the body over, so I can show you what I found.” Nia informed Lena, who nodded at the agents, allowing them to follow the intern’s directions. 

The body was carefully turned and placed, chest up, and when the agents backed away, Kara audibly groaned. 

“I hate when it’s weird like this.” She mumbled to no one in particular as she walked closer to the table, hands ever present on her hips. 

On Eve’s entire torso, carved deep into the skin and muscle, were the words ‘Male Parta Male Dilabuntur’, the lines mottled and dark red. 

“Don’t take this personally, but I kind of really hate your brother.” Kara said to Lena as she stared at the disturbing desecration of the remains. 

“Me too.” Lena replied as she closed her eyes and took in a sharp breath through her nose. 

“It’s Latin right? What does it mean?” Alex asked as she creeped up closer to the examination table, gloved hands beginning to examine the flesh. 

“It’s a Cicero quote. He was a Roman orator. It means that ill-gotten gains seldom prosper. I would assume it’s a message for me.” Lena provided as she slipped on a pair of her own gloves, forceps in hand to prod the stitches on the arm socket. 

“Because you inherited all the Luthor wealth when Lex went to jail?” Kara asked as she began to circle the table, tense energy rolling off her in waves.

“Or because of the professional success and acclaim I achieved in solving his last set of murders. Although I was already incredibly successful professionally.” Lena shrugged, lost in examination of the remains. 

Kara grunted, deep in thought before she came to stand next to where Lena was bent over the body. “Ok, so a message for you. Why the shit with the arms and the head?” 

Lena sighed and stood, ignoring Kara momentarily and peeling her gloves off. “Dr. Danvers, I can’t do anything here until you’ve examined the flesh. Dr. Dox, please assist and examine the remains and the tarp for any particulates.” She addressed Alex and Brainy, who had joined them and was stood silently off to the side. 

“I have a theory, as to the dissection and dismemberment of the limbs and head, if I may, Dr. Luthor.” Brainy spoke up, and Kara turned to face him, arms crossed, and eyebrow lifted. 

“Well, let’s hear it Dr. Dox.” 

“I have studied the past trials and the evidence brought against Lex Luthor, as well as the reports from the psychologists that analyzed him. He tends to rely heavily on popular mythos attached to great empires that have staying power in modern society, such as we have seen with nod to Rome here, and as was seen in the Bible verse imbued in Senator Wilbur’s spinal cord.” Brainy stood, arms behind his back, ramrod straight, eyes on the body as he spoke. 

“In this case, I believe it would be helpful to know if there was a helpful historical allegory he may be alluding to with the dismemberment of the limbs and head.” He nodded once, looking up towards Lena, who herself appeared to be thinking his words over. 

“I may have an idea. When we were younger and before Lex went to college, he was entrenched in the history of nomadic tribes. His favorite was that of the Scythian peoples, an Indo-Iranian nomadic tribe renown in their time for violence and domination.” Lena nodded appreciatively at Brainy for his insight before turning towards Kara. 

“Ancient peoples would sometimes endow parts of the body with ritualistic religious meanings. The Scythians were warriors who completed religious rituals in battle where they dismembered the arms of their first victim, in order to gain their own power from those that had opposed them.” 

Kara furrowed her brow as she glanced at the remains. “And the head? Did they try and gain their knowledge or something too?” 

Lena shook her head. “No, but I remember Lex telling me that there was a Scythian king, Scyles who was believed by his people to be an apostate for worshipping the Greek god Dionysus. As a result, he was dethroned and beheaded by his own brother.” 

“Great, more weird sibling shit, of course.” Kara sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers. 

“That doesn’t explain the arms though.” Sam said from her spot at Alex’s side. 

Lena shrugged and turned to Kara, who looked deep in thought. 

“Eve was the first one to testify against him in the trial, right? So, it’s not really the first victim he took, but it’s who he would see as his first enemy. And you,” Kara paused to point at Lena, “are the sibling who turned against him, so not so much worship, but maybe in his weird thinking that makes you the apostate. A message within a message.” 

Kara looked up from her pacing to see everyone staring at her, Brainy’s mouth slightly agape. She stopped, adopting a wide stance, hands back on her hips. “Yeah that’s right, I’m smart, I’m a constant surprise people.” 

Alex snorted off to Kara’s left, while Lena smirked at the agent’s obvious posturing. 

“Ok, but why mix the messages then? Why do the weird body stuff and then add in the Latin?” Nia asked as she spun back and forth in the chair she was sitting in. 

“We’re endowing Lex with intelligence he does not have.” Brainy said as he stepped forward to begin examining the visible pieces of the tarp, using forceps to collect small pieces of the forest floor that had gotten stuck to the plastic surface. “While we all know these things have meaning to him and make him feel superior, it’s mostly indicative of his delusions of grandeur.” 

“Brainy is right. These clues are haphazard messages, meant to seem alluring and undecipherable, but in reality, they’ve been easy for us all to understand.” Alex offered as she stood, waving over two agents to help prep the body to move into her office. 

“Ok, so what does that mean?” Kara asked, beginning to show the early signs of frustration as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest, having spent what she believed was too much time bouncing ideas back and forth with the squints. 

“Beyond the fact that it points to Lex’s inferior intellect, I am unsure.” Brainy said without looking up from the petri dishes he was placing evidence in. 

“Fine. Wanna know what it means to me? That he’s making more mistakes than we’ve been paying attention to.” Kara snapped, turning away from Brainy’s bent body and focusing on Sam and Lena. “We’ve been acting like we’re a step behind this entire time but really we’ve just gotten into our heads. We need to treat this like any other murder. Revisit the Wilbur files. Comb the evidence, rerun things, do things we didn’t think of before.” She said authoritatively, and Sam nodded, beginning to make her way off the platform. 

“I’ll go pull the files and the evidence trays.” She called as she walked down the platform steps, and Kara relaxed the tension in her shoulders slightly. 

“Alright. You guys get to work on this. Lena? If it’s ok, I’m going to use your office to look at files Maggie should have forwarded me by now.” 

Lena nodded. “Of course. I am going to go with Alex and observe the autopsy if that’s alright.” 

Alex shrugged. “Fine by me but no back-seat driving, Until I release them to you these are my remains.” 

“Yes, I understand.” Lena said and Kara smiled to herself as she made her way down the platform and towards Lena’s office. 

\---------

Lena hovered over Alex as the red headed woman worked to meticulously remove the stitches holding the neck together on the victim’s remains. 

“Lena I can feel your hot ass breath on the back of my neck.” Alex grumbled as she turned the lights on her goggles on brighter so she could pull the last set of stitches away without marring the flesh more. 

“Sorry, I didn’t realize.” Lena said as she took a measured step back. Behind her Nia and Brainy exchanged amused glances, but wisely remained silent. 

Once the head was detached, Alex took it in her hands and placed it down on a pedestal, pulling a small camera attached to the screen in front of her to examine the wounds. 

“That’s odd.” She mumbled to herself as the screen showed the red of the muscles and veins visible to the camera. “Dr. Dox, what do you see here?” She asked, turning the screen towards where Brainy stood.

“It seems there is massive blood aspiration to the soft tissue of the neck.” Brainy said as he took in the images, his eyes glancing down at the headless body when Alex nodded her assent. 

“What does that mean?” Lena asked as she leaned in closer, trying to see what Alex was seeing. 

“It means she was alive when Lex removed her head.” Alex said with a hint of venom in her voice, obviously disgusted at the discovery. 

Lena paled in understanding, feeling her stomach roil at the image of her older brother doing something so cruel to his former secretary. 

“That’s seriously fucked up.” Nia said from her place besides Brainy, looking as sick as Lena felt. 

“Yeah it really is.” Alex agreed, as she continued to examine the wounds, looking for any cause of death she could find. 

“There’s a sticky residue here on her back.” Brainy pulled out a swab and ran it through the shiny looking stain on Eve’s bare back, placing it in a test tube to preserve the evidence. 

“You should analyze it and see if you can determine what it is.” Lena directed with a nod towards the door, watching as Brainy walked quickly out towards his station near the back of the lab. 

“Miss. Nal if you could, go and help Mrs. Arias sift through the evidence from the Wilbur case – it may help to have two sets of eyes.” Nia nodded, face still pale at the brutality of Eve’s murder as she briskly left to find Sam. 

Alex and Lena remained behind, an easy silence settling over them attributed to the years they had worked companionably side by side. 

As Alex continued probing the victim’s flesh she glanced up at Lena, who was seemingly engrossed in the work she was doing. 

“So.” Alex began, watching as Lena winced slightly, looking as if she was dreading whatever Alex was going to say. “You and my sister.” 

Lena cleared her throat nervously, wringing her hands as she glanced at Alex. “Yes.” 

Alex snorted. “I was hoping for a little more, but I’ll take the confirmation.” 

“I assumed she had told you already. That’s what Sam said was happening.” Lena said as she moved out of Alex’s way so she could begin work on removing the stitches on the arms. 

“Grab a pair of forceps and goggles – you’ve got medical training and if I do this alone it’ll take forever.” Alex gestured to the cabinet behind her, giving Lean a blessed reprieve. 

As they settled into work together Lena nervously glanced up at Alex as she studiously worked. 

“I care about her, Alex. As much as I can.” 

Alex sighed slightly as she pulled a stitch free. “I know you do. I heard the whole thing the other day. I just – I hope you realize that Kara, she’s a front-line kind of soldier. A fire eater.” 

Lena paused her work and cocked her head to the side in confusion. “I don’t know what that means.” 

Alex set down her forceps and stood up fully to look Lena in the eye. “It means that she jumps in feet first – danger isn’t something she really worries about if she thinks the rewards will outweigh the costs.” 

Lena swallowed around her nerves and met Alex’s stare head on. “I know that about her. It’s why I worry about this case and her need to protect me. She has many wonderful traits like courage, compassion, empathy …. but I worry she will do something reckless to protect me. Especially now.” 

“Now that you two are together.” Alex filled in where Lena had left off, a faraway look in her eye as she considered Lena’s concerns. “Listen, Lena. I won’t lie, that recklessness has gotten her in trouble more than once. And I’m concerned too but I’m more concerned that in this instance the Luthor that has the ability to hurt her the most is you.” 

Lena clenched her jaw, biting down the reflexive defensiveness she felt at Alex’s words and took a calming breath. 

“Yes. Perhaps that is true, but I assure you that is not my intention. I would like to see what kind of future she and I can have, together.” 

Alex stared at her for a moment longer before she nodded. “Ok, good.” She picked up her forceps again and continued to work, leaving Lena reeling at the abrupt end to the conversation. 

She had been expecting something much more thorough and biting from the elder Danvers sister, and was surprised that had not been the case. 

She worked on the stitches for a while longer, content that the discussion she had been so nervous about was over when Alex finally successfully removed the arm from the body. 

As she stood to walk it over to a separate, smaller table, she paused and looked at Lena once more. “Oh, and Luthor? You do anything I don’t like, just remember – Kara isn’t the only one that spent time in the forces.” 

Lena paled slightly but nodded and watched as Alex walked away, arm in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lena and kara's plan to keep it quiet lasted less than 12 hours which i find delightful lmao


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> idk how I feel about this chapter, it's on the short side but I was really trying to just get back into the swing of things
> 
> sorry for how long it took to get this up! This is short but sweet and I'm hoping to get you a longer more substantial chapter soon.

Lena and Alex worked quietly side by side as they removed the rest of the stitches holding Eve’s arm to her body. Apparently, once Alex had given her version of a shovel talk, she was quietly content to focus on work, and Lena was happy to oblige. She lost track of time as she did something she rarely did – working on flesh. The two women settled into the silence, only for it to be interrupted moments later by Kara herself. 

“Hey. This is really gross.” Kara said as she sauntered up to the surgical table Lena and Alex were crowded around, a look of distaste on her face. 

“Yeah, it’s a Frankenstein corpse. Of course, it’s gross.” Alex snorted as she continued, her focus remaining completely on the stiches she had in the tips of her forceps. 

“Is there something you need, Kara?” Lena asked as she stood up and stretched her back. She took her time removing her gloves, feeling the same satisfaction she always did at the snapping sound they made. 

“Uh, yeah. So, Maggie called, and we got our answer to how Lex found Eve. Turns out that odd money transfer that Mercy Graves made to Otis? We caught a lucky break. Otis didn’t usually deal in so much cash so when he made a withdrawal for $15,000 the bank flagged it and took note of the serial numbers. The same numbers showed up at a convenience store near where Eve was being kept.” Lena followed Kara as they walked out of Alex’s office, walking side by side until they reached the couch in the middle of her own space. 

Kara flopped down without grace onto the couch and put her feet up on the table while Lena elected to remain standing. Kara looked up at her while she loosened the knot of her tie. “Turns out one of the Marshalls on the case has gone missing since Eve disappeared. I’m guessing he was the recipient of the cash.” 

Lena turned and walked back to her desk, primly sitting down and crossing her legs, unimpressed at how Kara was sprawled out in front of her. “So, what now?” 

Kara groaned as she sat up, running a hand through her already ruffled hair. “Now I get to do the fun part of my job and arrest one of DC’s richest and most terrifying people.” 

“You’re going to arrest Mercy Graves? Won’t your superiors be upset about that given her company’s importance?” Lena raised an eyebrow as she tried to tamp down the nerves she felt at the turn the case had made. 

Kara snorted and rolled her eyes, standing up and stretching, hands coming to rest defiantly on her hips, a cocky look of defiance on her face. “Sure, they’ll be upset. That’s not a good enough reason not to arrest her though. Evidence proves she indirectly bribed a federal agent and it led to a murder. She’s gotta pay for her crimes.” 

She turned and picked up the jacket laying on the back of the couch, shrugging it on before turning back to face Lena. “You ready?” 

Lena sighed and steeled herself. “Kara you don’t need me there for the arrest and I have important work to do in the lab. I understand that you want me to be protected. Surely for this you can leave an agent behind to stand in your place.” 

Kara looked ready to argue, jaw set, and teeth clenched before she took a long moment and released a sigh. “Yeah, alright. I’ll have Maggie come up and sit with you for a while. But just until I get done with this and then I’m back and on you like white on rice, got it?” 

Lena felt her cheeks heat up. “Yes. Noted.” 

Kara grinned at her as she pulled out her phone. “Sawyer’s gonna love this. You gotta promise me that if she manages to rile up Sam, you’ll get it on video.” 

Lena just groaned and rolled her eyes. Her office hadn’t known peace since the first day Kara Danvers had waltzed in. 

\--

It had been a few hours since Kara had gone off to arrest Mercy Graves, and Lena was getting anxious. She had been on enough arrests to know something was taking extra time, and with anyone from her past involved she felt she had more than enough reason to be worried. 

She could tell from the way Maggie periodically checked her phone that she was worried as well. Lena opened her mouth to ask Maggie what was taking so long when to her surprise Kara herself walked in, looking angry and put out. 

“So, I’ve been suspended.” She announced to Maggie and Lena, and Lena immediately stood up from her chair and crossed the room to where Kara stood. 

She was still in her suit, her gun and badge nowhere to be seen. Lena came to stand in front of Kara looking her over to make sure she was ok beyond the injury to her pride. “Because you arrested Mercy?” 

“That’s a huge over reaction. You’ve got pretty solid evidence for arresting her.” Maggie said as she stood up and joined the two where they stood near the door. 

Kara ran a hand over her jaw before it came to rest on the back of her neck. “Yeah, it is. Something’s not right here Mags. The Deputy Director absolutely lost his shit on me, made me turn in my badge and my gun.” 

“I told you, Kara. This is just like last time. You get too close and the powers that be do what they can to slow your progress.” Maggie whipped out her phone and began sending off texts as Kara began to pace. Lena stood silently watching the disgruntled agents, startled only by the sound of her office phone ringing on her desk. 

She briskly walked over to answer it, hoping whoever it was would quickly get to their request. 

“Dr. Luthor’s office.” She answered, watching with worry as Kara stalked back and forth across the office. When no one responded she paused, wondering who would be acting so odd on a secure line. “Hello? Who is this?”

“I’d like to think you haven’t forgotten me, dear sister.” Lex’s cold voice rang in her ears like a gunshot and she fumbled to grab a hold of her desk, as her knees threatened to give out on her. She quickly placed the phone on speaker and placed the handset back in the cradle, motioning to Kara and Maggie to remain silent but listen in. 

“You’ve made sure that I can’t forget you Lex.” She swallowed around her nerves and worked to remain calm, her voice taking on a steely tone. Kara jolted across the room, quickly but quietly coming to stand next to Lena, a warm hand placed on the small of her back. 

Lena tracked Maggie as she jogged out of the office, phone in her hand, most likely calling to get a trace on the phone call. 

“Ah, so you have been getting my messages. Wonderful. And how is that faithful dog of yours, now that she’s been fully leashed? I’m assuming she’s listening in on this call right now, yes? So predictable Lena. Father would be disappointed.” 

Lena clenched her jaw, steeling her nerves as Lex worked to get under her skin. Of course, he knew about Kara. That much she knew already given the photos she had seen of the two of them in Otis’ apartment. However already knowing about her suspension set Lena on edge. It meant Kara was right, that Lex still had his hold in the highest and hardest of places. 

“I don’t think I’m the one Father would be disappointed in, Lex.” 

She listened as Lex laughed, a cold maniacal sound so far from the laughs they had shared as children growing up. “Yes, well. Unfortunately, it looks as though my funding has dried up as of a few hours ago and that gets in the way of my plans. Once again, you’ve proven to be an obstacle I can’t afford to ignore. I’m coming for you, Lena, and that strapping FBI agent attached to your hip, and that little group of friends you parade around with. I will take everything from you, like you took everything from me.” 

The quiet click that followed indicated that Lex had hung up. Lena felt strong arms encircle her and she folded herself into Kara’s embrace. 

“It’s going to be alright Lena.” Kara whispered into her hair as her hands ran up and down Lena’s spine. 

“You can’t know that. He could get you. He’s gotten you suspended, you’re on your own now. And he’s not just after us now, he’s after Sam and Alex. Nia and Brainy. Kara what do we do?” Lena clutched the strong body that surrounded her, trying and failing to keep the fear out of her voice.   
Kara pulled back and placed a kiss to Lena’s forehead. “He can’t keep me down so easily. All he’s done is give me extra free time to keep you safe. And you’ve got like 40 agents shadowing your every move. I’ll have Maggie post a detail around the Washingtonian, and you guys will solve the case and get us the clues just like you always do.” 

“Yeah. I can do that.” Lena heard come from the door as Maggie walked back in, a look of annoyance on her face. She pulled herself from Kara’s hold. 

“Maggie? What’s up?” Kara asked as she took a step forward, tension evident on her shoulders. 

“It looks like you guys are on your own. I’ve been called into meetings now that I’m lead on this case, so I have to go.” 

Kara nodded and let out a big sigh, waving a goodbye to Maggie. After a moment she wheeled on Lena a serious look in her eyes. “I need to run home and get out of this monkey suit. You’re coming with me, no arguments ok?” 

Lena, tired after the phone call with her brother didn’t even bother to put up an argument, opting instead to get her purse and follow Kara out of the door.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all are staying safe and healthy during this global pandemic. If you have been affected, in any way, please know my thoughts are with you.


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